


Different People (Different Arguments)

by Ortega



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Angst, Background Relationships, F/F, Lesbian AU, Lots of Jealous Brooke, Mutual Pining, Political AU, Repressed Crush, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, The Thick Of It AU - Freeform, The absolute slowest, british au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:00:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 145,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25548595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ortega/pseuds/Ortega
Summary: Brooke Lynn is a political advisor for a government department where she has to contend with an incompetent Minister, maintaining her stone-cold bitch image, working alongside a press team of slackers, and the Prime Minister’s ever-so-slightly terrifying enforcer breathing down her neck 24/7. So when a familiar face from her past arrives as her new boss, she’s not exactly thrilled to add another problem to her ever-growing pile.And then she admits she’s got a crush on her coworker.
Relationships: Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, Jackie Cox/Jan Sport
Comments: 107
Kudos: 98





	1. Engineering a Departure

**Author's Note:**

> A rewrite of the fic previously titled Just The Game We're In.

High heels. The definitive sound of Brooke’s job. Day in, day out the click-clack, click-clack sound would echo through the offices, closely followed by the constantly ringing phones and the tap-tap-tap of keyboards. Often there was also shouting, the volume of which was never helped by the design of the building which allowed every whisper to be amplified by around a million decibels and broadcast into the lobby.

Brooke hated the new building. She’d hated the idea of moving into it, insisting it would reflect badly on their party and cost them in the polls.

“What kind of message is it going to send out?” she’d rolled her eyes, tearing her hands through her hair. “If we’re trying to tell the public we’re still in touch with them and understand their fears of another recession it doesn’t exactly help moving into what looks like Aquaman’s secret fucking lair.” 

She had been ignored, of course, as the decision had already been made. Brooke often wondered what the point of being a political advisor was if nobody ever actually listened to your advice, especially since the person you were supposed to be giving advice to seemed to be blundering about the world of politics like a headless chicken. Darienne Lake had been head of the Department for Social Affairs and Citizenship (Dosac for short) for quite some time now. Too long, Brooke thought. It was harrowing working for a woman who was clearly in the wrong profession, watching her get slammed by the media almost daily as a result of the latest crackpot policy she’d dreamed up. Brooke could’ve left the department a long time ago, should’ve left a long time ago. But she didn’t.

Politics was all about climbing the ladder and making connections. It was a game of chess, and over the years Brooke had seen many people make the wrong move both in and out of the public eye and subsequently watched them get disposed of. She’d seen people cross to the other side, watched both her own party and the opposition divide and conquer. It was all extremely black and white. The party line was a tightrope you had to walk. If you stepped out of line, you fell off the tightrope. If you weren’t up to date on what the line was, the tightrope got cut. 

Brooke could appreciate it wouldn’t sound hugely appealing to someone who didn’t live, breathe, eat, sleep and shit politics. However, this was her world. It had been her world since she'd started watching the news when she was six years old and heard her family talk about the politicians on the screen, and her need to be within the political realm only intensified when she left school and went to uni to study politics and economics, her drive and determination ensuring she graduated with a first class degree. Something that never got old to Brooke were people’s reactions when they discovered she wasn’t some dyed blonde lobotomy job who’d slept her way up the ladder. She wanted to keep giving people that shock day after day, and if that meant staying and advising an under-qualified, over-privileged cabinet Minister, then she could grit her teeth and bear it. 

The echoey click-clack of Brooke’s heels provided a soundtrack as she briskly made her way across the black tiles of the department building’s lobby and pressed one red acrylic nail to the button of the lift, the doors sliding open almost instantly. As she stepped inside, quickly checking her reflection in the mirror, there was the frenzied sound of heels on tiles and a panicked yelling.

“Hold the lift!” 

Smiling to herself, Brooke held the doors open as a small, pint-sized blonde ball of energy hurtled through them. Catching her breath and smoothing down her white shift dress, she shot her friend a quick smile.

“Morning, girl!”

“Hey, Jan. Great timing,” Brooke smirked as her friend fixed her windswept hair in the mirror. 

If you’d ever asked Brooke if she could’ve seen herself becoming best friends with a previous member of the opposition she would have laughed in your face, but Jan was an exception. She had crossed the floor three months ago, finding a job as one of Darienne’s junior policy advisors after she became disillusioned with the ruthless ideals of the opposition. From what Brooke had heard, the offices of Nicky Doll’s party had been a little cliquey and Jan had wanted to spread her wings. Understandably, Brooke had been suspicious of her at first but Jan had been persistently kind and sweet to her to the point where Brooke basically blinked and they were friends as well as colleagues. 

“What’s on the Minister’s agenda today then?” Brooke laughed humourlessly, leaning against the lift’s cool metal wall. “Are we demanding the extension of all buses by 30 centimetres? Bringing back the ha’penny? Outlawing kids?”

Jan threw her head back and laughed. “No, although all very possible Darienne ideas. We’ve to sort the public transport data before 5pm. That’s the only real pressing thing we have to do today.”

Brooke felt uneasy. The prospect of 24 hours that didn’t seem like being strapped to a bullet train speeding through fire seemed too good to be true. Something was always going wrong at Dosac and the fact that the only important thing they had to do with their day was to type some figures into an excel spreadsheet was suspicious. 

“How was your weekend anyway?” Jan asked, smiling kindly.

Brooke thought back to the previous two days which were spent holed up in her studio flat eating instant noodles and working her way through expenses forms which the Minister should have been doing herself. 

“Oh, you know...just a quiet one,” she gave Jan a small smile, which she returned.

The elevator doors opened and Brooke and Jan made their way to their desks. They were stopped in their tracks by a tiny, olive-skinned woman with flowing dark locks of hair babbling away at them at about a mile a minute. Smirking, Brooke shared an affectionate glance with Jan.

“And good morning to you too, human megaphone,” Brooke smiled, lazily throwing her jacket over her desk as the girl rolled her eyes.

“Brooke Lynn! This is serious shit. It would help if you made it into fuckin’ work on time,” she snapped back, pacing back and forth in her heels with worry.

“Relax, Vanessa. We were only a minute off, Darienne’s not going to be in for another fifteen,” Jan smiled lazily, kicking her heels off as she lounged in the wheely chair behind her desk. “Anyway, what’s the panic? It’s a chill day.”

There was one second of almost-silence as the clicks of computer mouses and the whirr of monitors were the only sounds in the room. Then, Vanessa’s eyes widened in horror. Brooke’s stomach dropped as she met Jan’s eyes- she’d known the prospect of a quiet day had been a veritable pipe dream. 

“A chill…shit, you guys didn’t get the briefing that Nina sent out? Oh Christ, what am I doin’ even asking that.”

“Are my ears burning?” came a sleepy voice from down the hall. A figure emerged bundled up in countless scarves and woollen cardigans, her blonde frizzy curls only just visible through the layers of clothing. Her manicured fingernails were curled around a Starbucks cup, which she was clinging to for dear life. 

“Morning, Nina! Great timing!” Vanessa greeted her sarcastically.

“Ignore her, girl. She hasn’t had her morning shot of Sambuca yet,” Jan drawled, smiling at the human game of pass the parcel who was currently detangling herself from her mummification of knitted clothing. Nina was Dosac’s press secretary who was kind and easy-going but also did the bare minimum, as her determination started and ended at getting home to her wife Monét and the latest episode of EastEnders every day. The girls all both loved her and were vexed by her in equal measures as it was often near to impossible to get any information from her or through her. But Brooke had to admit she did make a good cup of tea.

“Nina. Is there a reason why these bitches haven’t been briefed on Darienne’s interview with Raja Gemini today?” asked Vanessa.

Brooke threw her head back and groaned. _Oh, fuck._ This was bad news. Raja was one of the fiercest bitches in the media, a BBC journalist who was almost impossible to influence with spin. Fixing Nina with a stony glare, she was irritated even more when she simply shrugged.

“Vanessa, that email was sent to me at four minutes past five yesterday evening and you know fine well that the moment it hits five o’clock my out of office is on and my work phone is off,” Nina raised her eyebrows, curling her Bluetooth headset round her ear as she logged into her computer. 

“Christ. So the Minister has a Gemini interview and we’ve got no idea what it’s meant to be covering,” Brooke massaged her temples slowly. 

“Well, I’ll tell you what it’s about. She’s runnin’ with the mobile phone policy,” Vanessa sighed, nodding fiercely as both Brooke and Jan cried out in disbelief.

“Absolutely not. I thought we’d convinced her that it was a non-starter?!” Jan exclaimed, her tone nothing short of outraged. 

“Apparently she’s feelin’ the pressure of the opposition as a result of Nicky pushing to cut down on Co2 emissions, so she wants to bring out a policy that goes hand in hand with that so the government can look good.”

“That doesn’t even make any fucking sense! God, Nicky could sneeze and she’d be ‘feeling the pressure’. Sometimes it’s like this department’s being run by a startled cat,” Jan sighed, pushing her blow-dried waves of hair away from her face with her hand.

“Yeah, I always think watching her decision-making process is like watching an enormous baby trying to do calculus,” Brooke piped up, humour masking the genuine, real fear that this disastrous policy was about to go live. Its basic premise was to fine people who used their phones while they walked, to avoid collisions between pedestrians on the streets and therefore reduce waiting times at Accident and Emergency as there were less injuries. It was absolutely insane, but then this was a typical Darienne Lake policy. Vanessa had once told Brooke that she often genuinely wondered if someone was sneaking cocaine into Darienne’s pasta salads. 

Obviously suffering from a rare pang of guilt, Vanessa sighed as she leant against Jan’s desk. “I don’t know. I think sometimes this party’s way too harsh on her. And the press.”

“Can you blame them?!” Brooke snorted derisively. “It sucks, but if you’re a woman in politics and you go out in dresses that look like someone put stick-on diamantes onto a burlap sack mid-seizure, of course Hello magazine are going to have a field day.”

“Come on, Brooke Lynn, you gotta admit that she’s a very nice woman,” Vanessa shook her head, laughing only slightly.

“Being a very nice woman doesn’t make you a good politician, though,” Jan chipped in with a grimace.

“So you’re going to follow her when she eventually goes then, Vanessa?” Nina piped up from behind her monitor, her eyebrows raised high into her blonde curls. Vanessa bit her lip.

“…well. I still want some form of career, let’s not take it too far.”

The three girls laughed as Vanessa blushed pink. Vanessa’s loyalty to Darienne didn’t stretch all that far. When Darienne had entered the job last year it had also meant she had arrived as Darienne’s senior advisor. It had quickly become clear to Brooke that Vanessa had got to where she was by telling people what they wanted to hear, smiling and nodding at every turn as Darienne drove the department into one dead end after another. Brooke admired Vanessa’s craftiness; her method of going along with whatever Darienne wanted meant that whenever the time came to blame someone Darienne never looked her way. Of course, Vanessa secretly hated basically every idea that Darienne had and quickly grew to trust Brooke (and eventually Jan when she joined the party) as somebody she could share her true feelings with. Over her time as part of Dosac the three girls had become great friends, forming a sort of secret alliance of common sense against Darienne’s crazy politics. She didn’t look in any way like a traditional government advisor, but Brooke still thought she was amazing. 

At her job, that is.

“Face it, V,” Jan smiled sleepily, giving a stretch as Brooke shook herself out of her daydream. “Everyone’s running from Darienne like…ugh, I’m crap at one-liners at this time of the morning. Brooke, help me out?” 

“Like she runs from Weight Watchers? Like obesity runs in her family? Like McDonald’s employees run whenever she steps foot in the building? Come on, Jan, that one was easy.”

“Guys, c’mon! That’s both way harsh an’ fatphobic as shit. Check yourself,” Vanessa chastised her friends, shaking her head. Jan pulled a guilty face and made a helpless gesture.

“All I’m saying is that Darienne Lake is sinking like the Titanic, if the Titanic was on fire and made entirely of burning shit, and we’re going to be playing the violins if we don’t start distancing ourselves from her as soon as we can,” she yawned.

“Does shit float or sink?” pondered Brooke as she chewed a pen. 

“That’s not really the point here,” Jan rolled her eyes. 

“Look, I don’ give a shit about burlap sacks, or burnin’ shit, or spitroasting or whatever the fuck you guys are talking ‘bout, I just think she’s gonna notice if we start lookin’ like we’re about to jump ship!” Vanessa cried, flustered.

Jan and Brooke shared a concerned look.

“I didn’t say anything about spitroasting. Do you even know what spitroasting is?” Brooke laughed uproariously. Jan and Nina giggled as Vanessa shot Brooke a displeased glare.

“No. It don’t sound very classy,” she sniffed, scrolling through her phone nonchalantly. As the laughter died down, Nina sighed from her desk.

“Even if she does notice, it won’t be an issue. I heard Bianca’s sorting her departure.”

The three girls gave Nina equally shocked glances, their jaws slack at this bomb of information coming from someone who was usually so little help.

“You…heard something? You have ears? You have a working set of five senses?” Brooke teased her, gobsmacked but also a little excited at the prospect of getting someone competent in to run the department. 

“Hey, I am actually of some use sometimes! Akeria over at Richmond Terrace told me at our last meeting.”

All at once, Brooke deflated in her seat. “Right, so what you really mean is…a senior press officer for the opposition told you that Bianca was planning to get rid of Darienne, knowing she’d eventually find out and making sure she’d become rattled so that Nicky would be able to capitalize on the fact that she’d be acting more like a bat on Ritalin than normal.” 

Seeing Nina’s peeved expression, Jan piped up. “I’m sure there’s some element of truth in it, Brooke. I mean, Akeria’s not exactly party loyal, she’s just a civil servant.”

Brooke gave a little exhale. Jan was kind to the point of frustrating sometimes. “Well, if what Nina is saying is a fact-”

“Excuse me, I’m not Beedle the fucking Bard!” Nina cut in, resembling a meerkat as her head popped over the top of her monitor.

“- then maybe we should start distancing ourselves,” Brooke finished, shooting Nina an irked look, annoyed at having been interrupted. She noticed that Vanessa was giving her a confused sort of glance. 

“How? How do we create distance when we’re advising the bitch?” she stammered, clearly becoming nervous at the prospect of a minor coup. Brooke laughed. These were the situations where Vanessa’s inexperience showed and, although it was sometimes tedious having to hold her hand through such conditions, it was also ever so slightly endearing.

“Don’t panic, ‘Ness, it’ll be fine. Bianca will have it taken care of,” she smiled, trying her best to reassure her friend. 

Casting her eye to the clock, Jan narrowed her eyes. “V, you should probably head downstairs and meet the Minister. Her car’s going to be pulling up in, like, a minute.”

Cursing, Vanessa trotted towards the lifts as fast as her high heels could carry her. Brooke watched as she left, then exhaled loudly as she switched her computer on. Trying her best to relax, she cast her eye over the office. Apart from one glass-fronted room at the far end which belonged to Darienne, the majority of it was open plan. It was mostly filled with identical IKEA desks which were all the same shade of creamy grey and topped with piles and piles of work. Vanessa’s desk was messy with post-it notes plastered all round the screen of her monitor, encroaching on top of the piles of folders and ringbinders like some kind of horrific, neon disease. Brooke’s own was a sort of middle ground- most things were ordered but the nature of the job meant that sometimes a chaos of papers, files and briefing notes would sometimes hurricane itself across her desk. A stark contrast to the other two, Jan’s desk was like a beacon of order and tidiness in the hectic office. Everything had its place, her folders were all stored neatly and were colour-coded, and a packet of disinfectant wipes sat just beside the screen of her monitor. Their desks represented the three of them quite well. 

Over to her left beside the lifts sat the cluster of desks which housed the communications team. Nina sat at its helm, situated near the desks of the advisors. To the right of Nina’s desk sat the two senior press officers, Scarlet and Yvie, and to Nina’s left were the two junior press officers, Jaida (who Brooke often thought to be far more competent than Nina and often prayed the two would somehow find themselves in some form of Freaky Friday body swap) and Adore, whose chair was empty. Brooke rolled her eyes hard- Adore had started as a civil service intern and Darienne had ended up keeping her on permanently. It had been another one of her diabolical decisions as Adore was ever so slightly scatterbrained, preferred scrolling her socials to tackling any of the pile of incomplete work the size of Kilimanjaro on her desk, and devoted around 90% of her day to making cups of tea. As a person she was great fun and brought a certain element of life to the office when everyone was down, but as someone Brooke had to work with she was a challenge. There had been many times where Brooke had fleetingly thought of pushing over the pile of folders on her desk one day and killing her, doing the department a great service. 

Before Brooke could even open her emails, Darienne was marching through the department with Vanessa following behind her holding two large, red briefcases. 

“Morning, morning!” she sing-songed as she made her way into her office. “Meeting in ten, yes ladies?”

Brooke shrugged half-heartedly in response, scrolling through her emails with disinterest. As she watched Darienne swing her office door shut she let out a huge, bored sigh.

There was suddenly a flurry of activity as the sound of approaching footsteps thundered along the corridor. Soon enough, a small girl with wide eyes, cheeks flushed pink and blonde hair with black roots appeared and flung herself down into the empty desk beside Jaida. Getting herself comfy, she kicked her heeled boots off and fired up her computer. Adore had arrived.

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph, ain’t anyone able to get to work on time?!” Vanessa hissed, exasperated and trying desperately to mask the fact that Adore had only just arrived at the office. Sipping on the coffee that was no doubt in her porcelain keep cup, Adore shot her a slack-jawed smile as the other press officers looked up from their work.

“Hey, I was working, thank you very much! I was doing important party business before I got here.”

“What kind of important party business?” asked Yvie, her interest piqued at the thought of Adore voluntarily doing any work.

“Laila McQueen,” Adore beamed, taking another big, loud sip. Jan laughed as Brooke rolled her eyes so hard they threatened to fall out her sockets. “Hey, it just means we have The Independent on our side for the next couple of days!”

“Good work, girl. You’re like a broadsheet Julia Roberts. I didn’t know Bianca had started pimping people out,” Scarlet shot Adore a sarcastic grin and received a tight-lipped smile and one middle finger in response which made her snort a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, very good, Adore, real impressive. That’s your one minute of glory up. You think you could go and get us some tea? And maybe some pastries, Darienne’ll probably be hungry,” Vanessa ordered, Adore pouting and lazily rising from her desk. 

“Probably? It’s not like there’s an element of doubt to it,” Brooke snorted a laugh. “Get her a cinnamon roll the size of a Swiss cheese, that should do her fine.”

Five minutes later, Brooke found herself sipping a subpar cup of tea in Darienne’s office, craving the sweet embrace of death as she listened to her witter on about how Raja Gemini wasn’t _that_ intimidating, and that contrary to popular belief she was able to hold her own against the big journalists. Jan was attempting to talk her down from the ledge of misplaced confidence she had seemed to have clambered up to, Vanessa was doing her best impersonation of a nodding dog, and Nina was sleepily casting her eyes between Darienne and Jan as they spoke, her notebook blank. 

“Do you have a strong opening line?” Jan asked the Minister nervously, prodding at her lip with nerves. Darienne smiled smugly, leaning back and relaxing in her chair. 

“Once we implement these fines, the waiting times at A&E will be shorter than the waiting times at McDonalds. Ambulances will practically start operating drive thrus!” she reeled off, grinning proudly at the line she’d clearly spent hours thinking up. Stifling laughter, Brooke watched the reactions of the other girls. Nina’s pen hovered above her notebook hesitantly as if she couldn’t quite believe she had to write the drivel down, and Vanessa and Jan were staring at each other, wide-eyed with incredulity. 

“Jesus. I’ve seen stronger newborn children,” Brooke sighed as she leant forward and sat her cup of tea on Darienne’s desk, too disgusted to attempt to drink any more. “That cup of tea was stronger than that opening line.”

“Hey! I spent all night thinking that up,” Darienne cried, offended. Jan furrowed her brow.

“Honestly Darienne, it does kind of sound like you pulled it out of your ass.”

“Speaking of assholes, Bianca’s in the building,” Nina spoke up, checking her phone. The mood in the room suddenly plummeted. 

Everyone was afraid of Bianca. The only separating factor was just _how_ afraid they were of Bianca. She was the prime Minister’s enforcer and spin doctor, the lady who made it clear to everyone in government that they had to know the line and toe the line, often spinning the party out of crises like a terrifying dreidel. She had no time for time wasters, bluffers, blue-sky thinkers, or people who weren’t one hundred percent capable of doing their job, and often unleashed hell on those that weren’t. Brooke was a big girl, she could handle herself, but there was still something about the authority that Bianca radiated and how intimidating she was that made her just that little bit nervous. She knew she had an easy-going side, but Brooke hadn’t seen it often.

“She looking for us?” Vanessa asked nervously. 

“No, I’m sure she’s walking around the department trying to get her steps in for the day. What do you think?!” Nina hissed back, glaring momentarily at Vanessa then back to her phone. “Any second now...”

“Good morning, Bianca,” Jan greeted as a woman strode confidently into the office on six-inch Louboutins. Despite the fact her caramel waves of hair had a slight haze of frizz from the drizzle outside she was otherwise perfectly put-together, wearing a matching black suit jacket and pencil skirt combo. Her makeup was bright like the patterns on a poisonous frog and her lips were painted with bright red lipstick. Or perhaps that was just the blood of another poor cabinet Minister. 

“Yes, good morning, and I’m hoping it’s going to be a good fucking morning, because this one-” she trained a single black fake nail on Darienne’s face “-is fully prepped for her Gemini interview at 12, correct?”

“Don’t worry Bianca. I was up all night,” Darienne gave her a saccharine sweet smile, which Bianca turned her nose up at.

“So you’re fully aware she thinks it’s an utterly fucking horrible idea?” Bianca tilted her head very slightly. 

“She’s not the only one,” Jan muttered, just loud enough for Brooke to hear. 

Darienne looked somewhat put out, her face falling. Sighing, Brooke looked to the ceiling. Vanessa was right- the Minister was a nice lady, but how in the hell could she think that policy was anything less than an utter car crash?! Brooke began to allow herself to daydream, which admittedly was always a risk in Bianca’s presence, but already this day was like a huge, massive wave towering over them all before a tsunami and she needed to disconnect. She was aware of Bianca’s voice tearing into Darienne in the background.

“What if she asks you how many police hours this will take up? What are you going to say then?” 

“I would simply point her to the amount of money that this policy would generate, which would well make up for the drain on resources-”

“Jesus H Fuck, who did your media training? Myra Hindley? Don’t use the word ‘drain’! Don’t use any words with any negative connotations whatsoever! I don’t want a single word out of place in this interview, otherwise Gemini is going to start analysing it like Gillian McKeith analyses people’s shit.”

Darienne appeared to think things over for a moment. “So can I...um...can I use the word no?”

Brooke only just stopped herself from physically slapping her hand to her forehead. Bianca looked incredulously at the faces of the four other girls, each as long-suffering as the last. 

“Have I suddenly imagined a storybook character into life? Did a child make a wish on a shooting star last night, is that why fucking Moon-Face is sitting at a desk in front of me? Are the other Faraway Tree friends about to walk in through the door and start running the country?”

Darienne cast her eyes to the floor, the message well and truly received. 

“You mentioned the amount of money that this would generate. Is this going to be the saving grace of this policy? Is this going to be the diamond ring within the shit of the dog who accidentally ate it?”

“You’re very faecally focussed today, Bianca,” Jan piped up with a frown as Brooke stifled a laugh. 

“Yeah, well. It’s hard not to be when you’re within a 5 mile radius of this department,” she scoffed.

“Well within the first month, we’re looking to generate around…um, Vanessa?” Darienne cast her eyes to the senior advisor, whose gaze shifted to Bianca nervously. 

“Unbelievable. She can’t even retain her own fucking figures. Come on then, Britain’s number fifteen Rihanna impersonator, give me some good fucking news.” 

“Uh, we think…well, Darienne thinks…that within the first month of enforcement we could generate around £25,000 in £50 fines.”

Bianca’s face grew very gradually cold, Vanessa freezing to the spot as if she’d just been stared at by Medusa. Even Brooke shivered.

“You mean to tell me,” she began, her voice extremely measured and shaking only slightly. “That out of a population of 64 million people, who normally stumble around the streets with their heads in their phone screens like puppets with their strings cut, we’d be able to fine…500 a month?”

“Well, we deliberately predicted under target so that the actual figure would come as a pleasant surprise!” Darienne smiled back, completely nonplussed at Bianca’s rage. 

“If I could interject, I don’t seem to remember there being any ‘we’ about it,” Nina spoke up dryly, before lowering her head back down into her notebook.

“I really love the logic of this department. Maybe you should all become teachers! 50 add 50 equals 25, and when you find out that the real answer is actually 100, well that’s just a fucking pleasant surprise, isn’t it?! The crime stats from the last quarter revealed that there had been 73 murders committed, except- what a nice surprise! There were actually 78, because we forgot to count your five fucking bodies after I ripped them to fucking shreds!”

Brooke had no idea why Darienne was so calm. It was like her brain had been replaced by a huge goldfish bowl. Vanessa, however, looked a little shell-shocked, and Brooke couldn’t help the pang her heart gave as her protective instincts took over.

Only for a moment, though. 

“We’ve got time to accumulate some more accurate figures. They wouldn’t be bang on, but definitely a lot more impressive than £25,000, and they’d probably placate Gemini,” Brooke shrugged, sitting up a little straighter in her seat as she addressed Bianca. Casting her frown Brooke’s way, Bianca seemed to calm down very slightly. 

“Finally someone in this room that isn’t a massive, walking, talking sac of amniotic fluid. Get it done, okay? I’ll see you all after the interview.”

As Bianca left the room, the other girls all visibly relaxed. Vanessa began rubbing at her shoulder, clearly tense after being momentarily in the firing line. Flustered, Darienne finally spoke. 

“Right well, Brooke, if you could sort that out within the hour,” she smiled, as if she was in control in any way. “Jan and Nina, if you could stay with me so that we can smooth out the finer details of this interview, and Vanessa if you could get started on the transport data please.”

“Uh, that ain’t gonna be possible, Minister, ‘cause I got a lot of stuff left over from yesterday an’ I still need to send that email over to Nick at the treasury, an’ uh...” Vanessa suddenly blurted out, clearly still slightly rattled from Bianca’s visit. Brooke screwed her face up. What the fuck was she doing? Darienne looked equally perplexed as Vanessa stammered a correction. “I mean…no, yeah, of course. I’ll get it done as soon as I can.”

As Darienne dismissed them and Brooke and Vanessa marched out of the office, Brooke immediately grabbed her by the arm and wrenched her into the toilets.

“Brooke Lynn! What the hell?!” Vanessa protested, her eyes fiery.

“What the hell was that in the office there?!” 

Vanessa knit her brows together. “You told us to start distancing ourselves from her! I was tryin’ my fuckin’ best!”

“Yeah, distancing yourself, not starting a revolution! Am I talking to someone who works in politics or a seventeen year old who just got a D in their Modern Studies A-level?!” Brooke sighed, exasperated. She regretted it immediately when she saw Vanessa’s shoulders slump forward as she did her best impression of a kicked puppy.

“I’m sorry,” Vanessa muttered, shaking her head slightly. “I just…Bianca kinda panicked me.”

Without thinking, Brooke rested her hand on Vanessa’s arm in an attempt to comfort her. “Look…I know it’s hard for you. I get that you entered politics as Darienne’s aide and that if she goes, the road ahead is going to be kind of…non-existent. Well, not non-existent, just extremely winding and bumpy and parts of it might not have been built yet. But you’re party loyal, right?”

Vanessa nodded silently. “I’m not a fuckin’ hack. I came into this job so I could help change things for people, except sometimes I just feel like we’re not doing much good.”

“Yeah, well. That’s because the PM is too balls-deep in his secretary to run the country for more than five minutes, but anyway. The point is that you’ll be okay, we’ll all be okay! You, me, Jan. The dream team,” Brooke beamed at her, her heart soaring as Vanessa’s face lit up. “Just keep following whatever Darienne does, but keep your ears open. Any sign of a possible new option, glue yourself to them. Do your best leech impression.”

Vanessa’s face contorted as she took Brooke’s last comment literally, and both of them shared a laugh.

“But don’t panic. Like Jan said, Bianca’s going to sort it. You saw her in there, she’s at the end of her tether with that giant egg we’ve got running the department. We’ll be fine.”

As Vanessa giggled, Brooke found herself blushing very slightly. Stepping forward that little bit more, she wrapped her arms around Vanessa in a gentle hug. She smelt of a very sweet, sugary perfume, and momentarily Brooke found it hard to let go, her heart thudding in her ribcage. 

“Thanks, Brooke. You’re a sweetheart,” Vanessa smiled bashfully as she pulled away, sweeping her hair behind her ears. Brooke cast her eyes to the floor, embarrassed by the compliment.

“Come on. We’ve got work to do. You should start doctoring those transport stats for fun.”

Pushing open the door, Vanessa laughed and raised her eyebrows. “I got a C in my Modern Studies A-level anyway, so I don’t appreciate the accusation, ma’am.”

As the two girls made their way back to their desks, Brooke tried to clear her head. The conversation had dredged up a lot of feelings she’d been trying to repress. She didn’t have a crush on Vanessa. She wasn’t attracted to her like that at all. She was just protective of her, and she couldn’t help it if she was cute when she was flustered, or nervous, or happy, or irritated, or doing anything. That was just a fact. It didn’t mean she liked her as anything more than a friend. 

Besides, the position of token workplace lesbian couple had already been filled by Scarlet and Yvie. 

*** 

Brooke sighed, her disapproval hidden in the darkness of the news studio along with cameras, a teleprompter, and Vanessa. Why in the name of God was this interview live? It was barbaric to screen a brutal murder on lunchtime TV. Christ, there could be kids watching. Casting her eyes to the ceiling, she knew that Nina could have helped the situation. She could’ve pushed for it to be pre-recorded. But in her head she was already hearing the excuse about Raven at the BBC being “such a nice girl”, and that “she complimented my outfit once at Alyssa’s book launch”, so perhaps there was never any chance of it being anything but live. 

As the Minister stammered and stuttered her way through her lines, Brooke wondered how Raja was able to keep such a stony, cold expression. She was essentially watching the complete breakdown of Darienne’s political credibility in front of her, that was surely worth some pity. Contemplating the situation, Brooke supposed that having pity wasn’t really going to do a journalist any favours. Raja had been out at Gaza, for fuck’s sake. She was hardly going to be sympathetic to this human pannacotta sat in front of her, Darienne’s voice wobbling and wavering over every line she spoke as Raja’s eyes bore into her.

Brooke looked briefly to Vanessa, who was just looking at Darienne sadly. Brooke had to feel sorry for her. Vanessa had placed her trust in the Minister to introduce her to the world of politics, a world she clearly wanted to be a part of for all the right reasons, and yet this was the thanks she got. Sitting having to watch her boss pedal horrific policy after horrific policy and watching as her and her colleagues got constantly ignored.

She deserved better. 

Momentarily Brooke thought about making a joke, but reasoned that it would probably go down as well as a lead balloon. Instead, she texted Jan, safe from the debris of Darienne’s collapsing career at the office where she, Bianca and the communications team were all watching. 

B: _Jesus. I’ve seen ISIS condemned for less than this._

There was a pause as Jan texted back. Brooke tuned back into the interview. 

“…shorter than the, um, waiting times at McDonalds. Ambulances will practically start operating drive thrus!”

Brooke audibly groaned. Darienne had obviously inflated her life belt, pulling out her precious line as a last-ditch attempt to save the interview. Raja was less impressed.

“That sounds like an extremely serious comparison, Minister, you’re saying that this policy will simply rush patients through A&E as if they were…a burger? How thorough will doctors and nurses be?”

And there Darienne was again, back to flailing around the interview as if she was drowning. 

J: _I’ve never seen a human being reduced to actual liquid before. Hope you have a tub to transport her back to the office._

B: _How’s Bianca holding up?_

A pause. 

J: _I’ve seen mothers look less disgusted at their own afterbirth._

B: _I really hope you haven’t._

***

The first thing Brooke, Darienne and Vanessa were greeted with on their arrival back at the office was Nina, a frown on her face. 

“Well I’m glad that interview went so well. We’ve been fending off calls from several papers asking if this policy is, quote, the government’s dying whalesong, and The Sun are planning to run with the headline ‘Would you like dies with that’, in reference to the suggestion that the NHS is about to go down the drain.”

Brooke shook her head in contempt. “Imagine going to university for three years, getting a first in journalism, and then being paid to come up with that crap.”

“Absolutely. I think we should run with the line that these accusations are nonsensical,” Darienne bristled, annoyed that her pride and joy of a policy wasn’t making the impact it was supposed to. Brooke snapped her head round to face the Minister.

“I mean, I don’t think we can cover our backs that easily. You did that interview sounding as if you’d just survived a house fire, I mean _why_ did you include that drive-thru line?!” 

“It was an emergency! It was a last ditch attempt, I had to do something!” Darienne barked back, her face set in a frown.

Vanessa butted in. “An emergency line? A line to be used in an emergency? What the hell were the instructions? In case of emergency, break glass by throwin’ yourself through the top floor window of Broadcasting House?!”

The shouting match was stopped abruptly as Jan’s calm drawl trailed through the office. “Brooke, I just got a text from Bianca. She said she wants to see you in her office in five minutes, and if you’re late she’s going to make you stand in the Dosac lobby on a hot day and watch your face fry off.”

A horrified pause. “Her words, not mine.”

Exhaling noisily, Brooke grabbed her bag from where she’d just thrown it down on her desk. She tried to ignore Darienne’s smug smile as she made her way to the lift and a meeting with the most feared woman in politics.

***

Being able to see the inner workings of 10 Downing Street was like the part in The Wizard Of Oz when the curtain gets pulled back to reveal the Wizard as a sham. On the outside, it was the most perfect professional façade, a backdrop for thousands of press announcements, resignations and appointments. On the inside it resembled a prison riot at best, a hive of people running around trying to fix something, or spin something, or frantically complete some piece of unfinished work. It was slightly quieter today, Brooke noticed, as she sat on a hard, wooden chair outside Bianca’s office. 

She’d been there dead on time but Bianca was running ten minutes late so far. Lesser, more idiotic humans would call her out on it, but Brooke had a functioning brain and a desire to stay alive until at least the end of the day. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and curled her lip. She hadn’t a clue why Bianca had called her for a meeting and chose to pass up on the opportunity to berate Darienne about that car crash of an interview. If Bianca was looking for someone to blame, it couldn’t be Brooke. She had been under the impression that Bianca found her tolerable, but you could never really tell what her opinions on anything were. The woman’s poker face was so good she could’ve gone professional in Vegas.

The varnished, wooden door of Bianca’s office suddenly swung open, Bianca standing poised in front of Brooke like a bird of prey.

“You’re late,” she sniffed, as she held the door open for Brooke to come in. Mumbling an apology, Brooke slumped down into the leather-bound chair opposite Bianca’s desk and simply waited for whatever was about to come, looking casually around the room. It was a setting she knew all too well- the marble, white fireplace, the eerie green lamp giving off an abnormal white light on her desk. The nondescript paintings of some long-dead war heroes, the bookcases filled with files and files and files. The entire room screamed power and intimidation.

“Do you want a coffee, Brooke?” Bianca began casually as she sat down opposite her. Perplexed, Brooke shook her head.

“I’m okay…I’d kind of just like to find out why I’m here. I mean, aren’t you supposed to be after Darienne?”

Snorting a laugh, Bianca rose from her chair and moved to perch on the edge of her desk. She was slightly above Brooke’s level, but her tone and general aura were quite relaxed, bordering on informal. 

“You were friends with Jaqueline Cox at university, correct?”

_Ouch_. The memories ripped through Brooke’s mind like a migraine. Jackie Cox, the know-it-all in every seminar. Jackie Cox, the try-hard in every presentation. Jackie Cox, with the smug smile and the glossy dark hair and the perfect matching stationary. She knew Jackie, and Brooke knew enough to know she wasn’t a fan.

“Friends is pushing it. She was on the same course as me and was about as irritating as thrush, and that’s all I really had to do with her,” she sniffed in her own non-committal way. Bianca flared her nostrils and made a face, indicating to Brooke that she’d given a wrong answer.

“Okay, maybe my phrasing was a little off. In case you haven’t noticed, you haven’t stumbled into some friendship bracelet craft class, this is Downing Street. So I’ll rephrase the question. Is she any good?” 

Brooke felt momentarily like she was trapped in a lion enclosure. “Is she any good at…?”

“At juggling silicone breast implants and walking a tightrope over a lake of tepid piss. Is she any good at politics?!”

“God, I mean...I guess she’d be a good politician,” Brooke admitted begrudgingly. “She’s principled, she’s got strong morals and a backbone. She’s eloquent enough and nowhere near as big a car crash as that sheep’s placenta we’ve got as a Minister.”

Bianca smiled fleetingly, then stood and walked back to her chair, appeased. 

“Perfect,” she said, her eyes boring into Brooke’s as she sat down. Looking momentarily behind her, Brooke shifted in her seat.

“So...why are you asking about Jackie?” she asked slowly, drawing each word out just that little bit too long to be necessary in her hesitation. Bianca smiled slowly in return.

“It came to my attention this afternoon that maybe there needs to be some…changes made around here. My party is being made to look like a laughing stock, and I don’t like it,” she growled, her eyes growing dark. “Darienne’s been palming off her expenses forms onto you, correct?”

Brooke nodded silently.

“Maybe it would be in your best interests…and the party’s best interests…to doctor them slightly. Then if they end up in the hands of the media…so be it. She’s left with no credibility, there’s no coming back from that. She’ll have to resign. Then really all that’s left to do is get a replacement in. Smooth as a bottle of Moët,” Bianca shrugged, leaning back in her chair calmly. Blinking twice, Brooke suddenly became apprehensive. 

“Bianca, I can’t…I can’t just fake her expenses claims.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Do you have a note from your Mum? Have you got a cold and you can’t take part in this part of your actual job? You’re surprising me, Brooke,” Bianca sighed, clearly disappointed. “I honestly thought you had something different in you. A spine, a brain. Some form of drive, determination to succeed. You love this party, yes? You came into politics to make a difference, right?”

Brooke flinched slightly. Bianca was hitting her where it hurt, and she knew it was going to get a rise out of her. “Of course. I want us to succeed. I want us to change things.”

Bianca smiled, glad to have received a sufficient reaction. 

“Then sometimes things have to be done by any means necessary,” she said gravely, running her tongue along her teeth. “If Jackie accepts the offer, she’ll be the new head of Dosac by tomorrow afternoon.”

Something about the whole appointment of Jackie Cox didn’t sit right with Brooke. She was just an annoying, opinionated, mouthy university girl, and there were ten a penny of those in London. Why her? Why not someone slightly more tolerable?

“Why does it have to be Jackie, why can’t it be someone else?” she voiced what she was thinking, annoyed. Bianca laughed, clearly amused.

“Okay, Miss Political Advisor. Advise me, since I’ve clearly not weighed up all the options.”

Stuck for a moment, Brooke’s brain began racing round at a hundred miles an hour. “Kelly Mantle. The back bencher from Education, she’s good.”

“No. She looks too much like a resident of Whoville to be put in the spotlight. Can you imagine when she inevitably fucks up, what the headlines will be? Who dunnit? Whose fault is it this time? Who, who, who, all over the front pages like owls with tourettes.”

Brooke sighed, then perked up with another idea. “What about Bianca Castro from Health?”

“Who, Jiggly?” Bianca asked, nonplussed. 

“…Bianca Castro. She has a good track record, the public would love her-”

“Yeah, Jiggly.”

“Bianca, her name isn’t Jiggly.”

“The media damn well think it is after they got hold of those photos of her at the all-you-can-eat world buffet. Not exactly astounding publicity for a junior health Minister. She’s going nowhere.”

Brooke barely held in a grunt of frustration. “Ongina, that MP for-”

“Her name literally sounds like vagina. PR disaster. Next.”

“Jade Jolie.”

“She couldn’t run a bath, never mind a department.”

“Lashawn, then?!”

Bianca threw her head back and hooted a laugh. “You’re joking, right? Can you imagine her even trying to pronounce some of the names on the immigration database? She stays firmly on the back bench.”

Brooke pouted a little, frustration seeping out of every pore. Seeing her obvious displeasure, Bianca’s tone became placating, the woman’s softer side making a rare appearance.

“Look. Right now, we need strong leaders in this party. Jackie is about as strong as we’re going to get from what I’ve heard, and we need her to steer us out of this ditch that Darienne’s gradually lowered us into. You don’t need to worry about a thing, apart from those expenses forms. I’ll take care of it,” she smiled, reassuring Brooke as she stood and made to leave. Before she reached the door, a thought suddenly struck her like iced lightning, freezing her to the spot.

“Bianca…” Brooke began hesitantly. “Do you think Jackie will come with her own people? I mean, I’m not hugely up to date with her movements, so I don’t know how prepared she’ll be, and I’m fine, I can look after myself, you know? But like, Vanessa…and Jan, of course. Will she…will they get to keep their jobs?”

Bianca’s eyes were instantly on her, searching and wondering about the hidden agenda behind Brooke’s question. “I’ve worked with you for a while, Brooke Lynn. I must say, I’ve never seen you get attached to anyone in this game.”

“Well, you know,” Brooke shrugged, maintaining a cool exterior. “We work well together. We’re a good team. And she’s a valuable member of the department, that’s all.”

“Vanessa or Jan?” Bianca questioned. 

“They both are! I just…I just want to make sure they’ll both be fine.”

Bianca moved to the doorway, gently showing her out. “Just doctor those expenses. Try not to pop a blood vein while doing so.”

Sighing, Brooke shook Bianca’s hand and click-clacked her way down the marble hallway towards the famous black door. Not too far along the corridor, she heard Bianca call after her.

“Brooke Lynn!”

She turned around sharply.

“Loyalty gets remembered in this party. Especially by me.”

***

Brooke hit send on her email to Bianca at 5.30pm on the dot. Darienne had claimed for Ubers from here to Downing Street, business lunches at nearby curry houses, and, just for laughs, a helicopter. Brooke had felt a little guilty fabricating it all, but it was impossible not to. If she had a complete lack of morals she’d be working for Nicky’s party, not Darienne’s. However, as Bianca had said, it was for the good of the party that she had to go. 

She was still unsure about Jackie though. If everything went smoothly, by this time tomorrow she’d be sitting in Darienne’s office barking orders at her. It would be like every university group project all over again. Brooke had never actively disliked Jackie, she’d just found her grating. She was slightly unique, though. True, there were many girls of her type on her course, argumentative and challenging, but there were few that held their composure so well throughout a debate, maintaining class and superiority the entire time. Maybe that’s why she’d rubbed Brooke the wrong way so violently. Anyway, there had been a good eight years separating her time at uni and her time within the realm of politics. Perhaps Jackie was different now. 

Shutting down her computer, she swivelled her chair round to face the other girls. She’d communicated to everyone through hushed whispers that Bianca’s plan was being put into effect immediately, creating an excited buzz around the office for the last few hours of the day. Regrettably she’d noticed that Vanessa had become more subdued because of it, the girl clearly wondering where this left her career. Brooke wanted nothing more than to see her happy again. She just hadn’t had time to attempt to cheer her up in between the expenses and finishing the transport data. 

It looked as if Adore had already left, her chair empty and her bag gone with her half-empty coffee cup on her desk. Nina had long since vanished, her desk clear and any evidence of her ever having been there completely gone. Jaida was clearly in for the long shift, still working steadily through her excel spreadsheet with an energy drink by her keyboard. Jan was pulling on her coat, fixing her hair rapidly, and Scarlet and Yvie looked ready to leave too. Vanessa suddenly appeared in front of her. 

“Hey,” she smiled gently. “We’re goin’ for a drink, think we could all do with one after today. You coming?”

Brooke fleetingly thought of a night with the girls, of just having a laugh and being slightly less stressed than normal. The thought of a glass of wine was tempting, but then the immediate thought of work the next day and how chaotic it would be made her decision for her.

“Sorry, ‘Ness. I’m going to head back. Next time though, yeah?” Brooke gave a tight smile, sighing a little when Vanessa’s face grew slightly more disappointed than before. As she nodded understandingly and turned to leave, Brooke suddenly grabbed her hand without really knowing why. Checking the office to see if anyone was looking at them, Vanessa then gazed at Brooke, confused. 

“Talk to me. You’re still worried about tomorrow, aren’t you?” Brooke murmured quietly, trying not to draw attention to them. Jan was chatting happily with Scarlet and Yvie was hugging Jaida goodbye, so they were safe for now. 

Vanessa’s face was worried. “I just don’t like the uncertainty. I wouldn’t be as worried if it didn’t mean I could get split up from you and Jan. We’re so good together. I don’t wanna lose that.”

Brooke’s heart swelled a little in her chest. “Listen. Don’t make it common knowledge, but I might have had a hand in Bianca’s plan. She kind of hinted that I’d be repaid in some way. We’ll all stay, don’t worry. I trust her.”

Brooke almost breathed a sigh of relief as Vanessa’s shocked face grew into a bright, happy smile. “Fuck, Brooke Lynn, you serious?!”

“Yeah. I got one wish. I sold my soul to the devil. Sue me,” Brooke snorted sarcastically, making Vanessa laugh. 

“Wait, what’d you have to do for her?” Vanessa whispered, her eyes excited.

“I had to sleep with her. It was horrendous. She eats pussy like I eat noodles. Slurp slurp slurp.”

Vanessa’s nose wrinkled up as she laughed uproariously, drawing the attention of the other girls to them to Brooke’s dismay. Vanessa looked beautiful when she laughed. Then again, she looked beautiful all the time. That was just a fact, of course. 

“Hey, Brooke! You coming out with us or what? Silk and Akeria are joining, ” Yvie yelled over, smiling as she wrapped her arm around Scarlet’s slim waist. Brooke tried her best not to screw her face up- she had a hard time being polite to anyone from the opposition, even if they were only civil service comms officers.

“Nah, she’s being boring,” Vanessa teased, sticking her tongue out.

“Aw, come on, Brooke! You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, ‘specially tequila ones,” Scarlet piped up, giggling and throwing her other arm around Yvie. Brooke smiled at the affectionate couple.

“Yeah, well, like Vanessa said, I’m being boring tonight. You and Yvie take care of those two liver transplants waiting to happen, okay? I can’t quite believe I’m saying it but you need to be the responsible ones.” 

As Scarlet laughed, Yvie and Jan said their goodbyes to Brooke. Vanessa was still hovering at her desk, a small smile on her face as she bent down and hugged Brooke without warning. 

“You’re the best member of this whole department, an’ the best damn work friend I could want,” she whispered, her words lighting up Brooke’s heart. Pulling back, she gave a quick glance to the girls who were waiting on the lift to arrive. “I owe you one, bitch. Have a good night. Eat dinner and sleep well, ‘kay?”

Brooke gazed fondly at Vanessa, her tiny frame retreating into the lift. Vanessa cared about her. She cared about everyone. It was part of the reasons why Brooke liked her so much. 

In the most platonic way possible, obviously.

*** 

Arriving at work the next day, it was clear that Bianca’s plan had worked. Thanks to a few emails to the big papers, Darienne’s false expenses claims were plastered over all the front pages, giving a pretty damning verdict. 

“She’s good at leaking, isn’t she? Bianca, I mean,” Nina pondered casually from her desk, causing Brooke to look up from The Times. 

“She’s brilliant. She’s like an 85 year old woman that never did pelvic floor exercises,” Scarlet muttered, ignoring the ringing phone. 

“Nothing in The Independent about it though, I’ll give you that, Adore. Laila McQueen must’ve been one satisfied customer,” Jan laughed, holding up the front page which was jarringly dissonant with the other headlines, instead focussing on something to do with the polar icecaps melting. 

“I’m good! I keep telling you all and you never listen,” Adore winked cheekily, as the phone continued to ring.

“Ain’t someone gonna answer that?!” Vanessa snapped, frustrated. Jaida reached for the receiver hesitantly, looking at Nina to gauge her reaction. Fixing her eagle eyes on her in disapproval, Jaida drew her hand back as if the phone was a hot stove. 

“I’ve told them all we’re in a no comment situation,” Nina turned to Vanessa, shrugging. “There’s nothing else we need to say. If those bastards don’t get the meaning of that then quite frankly they shouldn’t be in journalism.” 

Brooke stayed quiet throughout the whole exchange. She was worried, fretting about what Darienne would say when she arrived. She knew full well she was going to get the blame, hell, she _was_ to blame. As much as Brooke could pretend to be completely ruthless, the guilt was beginning to seep in. At this point everyone in the department knew it was Brooke who had a hand in fixing the expenses forms and although everyone was being perfectly normal and friendly towards her, she was concerned about what they really thought and what they’d say when she left the room.

She hadn’t even seen Jan come and stand next to her.

“You’re awful quiet today, sweetie,” she drawled, leaning against a set of shelves that contained about twenty thousand government files. “Everything alright?”

Brooke nodded silently, brushing her fringe out of her face. That didn’t appear to satisfy Jan. 

“Look, nobody thinks any less of you for what you did. It’s politics, it’s not kid’s TV. Sacrifices have to be made, people have to be disposed of. You did the department a favour, to be honest,” she continued, as if she could read Brooke’s mind. Brooke couldn’t help but smile. Jan had a certain telepathic quality, and often she could begin cheering you up before you even knew what reasons you had to be sad. She was a total ray of sunshine, and her happy-go-lucky personality was welcome in the department today. 

“Thanks, girl,” Brooke sighed, stretching out in her chair and giving Jan a tight smile. “That means a lot. You’re a blessing to this department. I mean, God knows the mood in here today’s about as flat as...well. Maybe it’s my turn to not be good at one-liners today.”

Jan laughed softly, leaning back a little more against the files. “I try my best. But hey, I should thank you! Once Darienne goes, I might see about standing as an MP in the next by-election.”

Brooke raised her eyebrows a little. She had no idea that Jan had even had ambitions outside of performing at every available karaoke bar London had to offer. “Really?!”

“Yeah, I’ve kind of been thinking about it for a while.”

Brooke was secretly excited about the prospect of working with just Vanessa. Purely because things would be easier to organise between just two people, and things would just run more smoothly. It wasn’t because she had a crush on her or anything, that would be a ridiculous accusation. Brooke was a professional. There was no scope for things like that in this game. 

“Well, I’m sure you’d be amazing. The public would love you,” she smiled at her friend sincerely. Flattered, Jan relaxed completely against the shelves, a giant file careering from the top shelf onto the ground. 

“I’ll get it,” Brooke reassured Jan, whose face was apologetic.

“Right, I’m goin’ to fetch Darienne,” Vanessa announced, making her way to the lifts a little nervously. “Smiles an’ happiness when she arrives please, people, try not to make the office feel too much like a wake.”

Yvie tipped her head back over the back of her chair, looking at Vanessa upside-down. “Are we not supposed to be mourning the bitch’s career?”

With a long-suffering shake of her head, Vanessa disappeared into the lift. 

Five minutes later, Brooke was picking up the dropped file from behind the shelf when two sets of footsteps thundered through the office and a voice cut through the click-clack, tapping keyboards and ringing phones. 

“MEETING ROOM, NOW!”

Slowly, Brooke crept towards Darienne’s office, following a running Nina and Jan. Darienne was standing behind the desk, her face a thunderstorm. As soon as Brooke skulked in she narrowed her eyes.

“Can someone, maybe Brooke Lynn, tell me why my face is all over the papers like a disgraced fucking gym teacher?!” she barked, her voice reverberating off the glass door of her office.

“Okay, there must have been some form of mix-up with the forms because yours was completely clean when I submitted it,” Brooke immediately fired back. She’d had a bit of time to come up with her defence and, even though it was completely feeble, it was better than silence.

“That’s got to be the most shit excuse I’ve ever heard. How does something like that happen?!” Darienne yelled back. Suddenly, everyone’s eyes shifted to the doorframe of the office, where Bianca had arrived. 

“Hey, big spender,” she greeted the Minister, the joke sitting out of place with the purpose of her arrival.

“Bianca, I didn’t claim for those things. I don’t know what’s going on, I gave my forms to Brooke to do, we need to tell the press that these claims are fake!” Darienne gibbered, panicking like Bianca was holding her hostage.

“Yeah, what are we running with, Bianca? We’ve been in a no comment situation all morning,” Jan asked. 

“The phone’s been ringing off the hook. I’ve been ignoring it but we’ve got to give them something soon enough,” Nina shrugged, nodding in agreement. Bianca let out a harsh exhale, rubbing her neck tersely.

“Oh, Jesus Christ, could you all just get off my back for a hot second?! You’re like a pack of fucking fleas. Are you not supposed to be a team of advisors? Are _you_ not supposed to be head of communications?!” Bianca cried, shooting Nina an icy glare. Completely unfazed, Nina clicked her pen. 

“Yes, but I’m completely unable to do anything if I don’t know what we’re communicating!”

Bianca rolled her huge eyes up to the heavens, seemingly trying to cool her boiling blood. As Brooke scanned her eyes over the rest of the room, she caught Vanessa looking straight at her, her eyes a little fearful. Brooke shot her the most reassuring smile she could manage and almost gave an audible sigh of relief when Vanessa seemed to relax. 

“So, you want to go out to the media and tell them that, _hey! It’s not so bad, because the truth is that I’m too lazy to fill out my own fucking expenses forms, so I just gave them to one of my aides to fill out! I’m not actually keeping that close an eye on how much I’m claiming back!_ Do you realise how that’s going to look?” Bianca scowled, Darienne sighing and slumping into her chair. 

“So what do we _do_?!” she asked, her voice somewhere between a whine and a plea. Brooke began to feel a bit less guilty as she rolled her eyes. She wished Darienne had a bit more backbone, a bit more of a spine. It would endear her to her a lot more. That sort of big-eyed deer act was only cute when Vanessa did it. 

There was a momentary silence in which Nina clicked her pen repeatedly, looking from Darienne to Bianca, then back to Darienne. 

“You have two options,” Bianca finally said, her voice much quieter than before. Turning to the other girls, she addressed them gravely. “Could you ladies give us a moment.”

Not a question, a demand. One by one, Brooke, Vanessa, Jan and Nina all filed out and wordlessly closed the door. After a heartbeat of silence, Nina sprinted over to the comms team. 

“Is it happening?!” Scarlet asked, wide-eyes and open mouthed, like a child at Christmas. 

“It’s happening now! It’s happening now. Two bullets in the back of the head, bang, bang!” Nina replied excitedly, her voice ringing through the offices as she mimed a brutal murder. 

“Nina!” Vanessa hissed, motioning to the glass-fronted office where Bianca and Darienne were standing motionless, looking at Nina impassively. Horrified, she abruptly sat down in her seat. 

“I can’t believe it’s actually going on right now. Fuck. She’s gonna hate me, ain’t she?” Vanessa worried, biting her nails. Jan slapped her hand away from her mouth.

“Stop that!” she reprimanded, Vanessa looking to the floor sheepishly. “She won’t hate you, and if she does, well, that’s politics. She’s a grown adult, she can handle it. She knew the profession she was entering into was ruthless.”

“Nobody could hate you,” Brooke added, brushing Vanessa’s cheek with her finger very slightly. “You’re like a fucking carebear. It’s impossible.” 

A pink blush crept over Vanessa’s face. “You two are too sweet to me, get outta here. Hey, have we heard about a replacement?”

Brooke sighed. “I don’t know if she’s accepted it or not yet, but Bianca told me Jackie Cox is in the running.”

Jan and Vanessa’s faces both screwed up. “Who the hell is that?”

“I went to Uni with her. I didn’t even know she was in the game until Bianca told me she’d scouted her out. I still think Jiggly would be better.”

“You mean Bianca Castro?” Jan raised one eyebrow. 

“Fuck, yes. Now she’s got me doing it,” Brooke sighed, further confusing the two girls. 

Suddenly, there was a creak from the office door. Darienne emerged, her posture perfect and her head held high as she walked towards the three girls. Her eyes were cold, so much so that Brooke found herself shivering a little.

“Right, well. Thank you, ladies, for your unwavering support. I wish you all very long and successful careers,” she said cooly, then her face darkened. “And I hope you all get heart failure.”

“Aw Darienne, c’mon!” Vanessa pleaded as the ex-Minister marched towards the lift, a storm cloud of rage. As Darienne stepped into the lift, Yvie began whistling Another One Bites The Dust under her breath and Scarlet started laughing so hard Brooke momentarily thought she was suffocating. 

Brooke started laughing too. She had to, she couldn’t help it. This pathetic, _et tu, Brute?_ act was wearing. Jan was right, these were the rules of the damn game. People in the department had come and gone as if Dosac was a massive revolving door and Darienne had never shed a tear for them. Brooke hated the hypocrisy that was so freely batted about in politics. Mourning a departure with a simple “it’s a shame, but they had to go” and then acting like the damn Godfather when your own time came. There was no dignity in it, no class.

“Ding dong, the useless fucking bitch is dead,” Bianca deadpanned, Vanessa relaxing and giggling a little at the slightly less high-intensity Bianca. 

“What happens now, then?” Brooke asked her. “Did Jackie take the job?” 

“Like a trout on a hook. Barely even had to sell it to the kid. Right, here’s the line!” Bianca suddenly yelled, loud enough that Darienne could probably hear it from the ground floor. “Darienne will be giving a statement outside Number 10 in fifteen minutes. After that, all I want to hear is praise. Praise, praise, praise, Psalm one hundred and fucking one. At 12pm, you guys will have a new Minister. Nina, it’s your job to break her in. Break her fucking spine if necessary.” 

Nina nodded apprehensively, unsure of how serious Bianca was. 

“I’ll see you all again at half 12. Oh, and Destiny’s Child?” Bianca said, turning suddenly to address Brooke, Vanessa and Jan as she hit the button of the lift. “It won’t be necessary to clear your desks if you don’t plan on leaving.”

As Bianca left Vanessa turned excitedly to Brooke and Jan, grinning madly as she gave them a huge hug, happy at being allowed to stay. 

Brooke decided she’d probably have quite literally stabbed Darienne in the back in order to have that smile flashed at her again.

***

“Ladies, I’d like to introduce your new Minister for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship…Jackie Cox!” 

Everyone started clapping, but in equal measures scrutinising the tall girl in front of them, standing beside Nina nervously and waving hello. She hadn’t changed all that much since Brooke had last seen her. Her hair was still long, swept back into a neat pearl headband so that her dark waves fell down her back instead of over her shoulders. Her makeup was simple as it always had been: a few swipes of mascara, a dark brown eye pencil to bring out her equally dark eyes, a dusky rose shade on her lips. She was in a matching red suit jacket and tailored skirt, and had red heels on to match. Brooke’s feet were beginning to get sore in her own heels, tired from standing in line with Vanessa and Jan waiting to welcome Jackie. She didn’t have to wait much longer though as Jackie was already shaking Vanessa’s hand, smiling and gushing about how she was so honoured to take up the position and how she was so looking forward to working with her. Brooke stared at her, a little irritated with the dramatics. Jackie then moved on to Jan who was standing in the middle of the line. Brooke watched as they both looked at each other, Jan sort of open-mouthed and Jackie seemingly finding it hard to formulate words. 

“You must be Janette. It’s so good to meet you,” she finally said as she shyly held out her hand. Jan took it, shaking it gently. 

“It’s good to meet you too. And, uh, Jan’s fine. My friends call me Jan. Not that you’re my friend, of course, you’re my boss. But uh. You can still call me that,” Jan mumbled, her voice quiet and a little nervous and her eyes not once tearing away from Jackie’s. 

“Right! Sure. I, um. I hope you’re staying on?” Jackie asked, her voice a little hopeful as she gave Jan a smile, her teeth white and dazzling. 

“Absolutely. I can’t wait to start working with you! It’ll be, uh. Jan-tastic!” Jan raised her eyebrows a little as she made her joke, Jackie giving a polite laugh of her own. Brooke’s brow furrowed in confusion, the corners of her mouth turning down slightly. What the fuck was this? 

“Well, I’m really excited to get started. It was so good meeting you, Jan,” Jackie smiled, giving Jan one last look as she finally tore her eyes away and faced Brooke. Her face immediately changed, taking on an awkward sort of expression as it was clear she had no idea what to say to Brooke. “Brooke Lynn! Hi! What a nice surprise! Gosh, it’s been a while!”

“Yeah, like, eight years. You look good,” Brooke replied curtly, not really instantly warming to Jackie despite her efforts. 

“It’ll be nice working together. Just like at uni! I didn’t really believe it when Bianca said you were here!” 

“Yeah, well. I’m just climbing the ladder. Where have you been these past few years, anyway?” 

“Just the stock exchange. It was always the economic side of our degree I was more interested in, but when Bianca phoned me I thought this was a pretty unmissable opportunity!” Jackie beamed at an unimpressed Brooke. Receiving no reply, she stepped back a little awkwardly. “Anyway, it’s nice that you’re here. I’d better start my briefing, so I’ll speak with you later?” 

Brooke nodded wordlessly as Jackie click-clacked away. _Say ‘nice’ again, bitch, I dare you._

Vanessa tilted her head as she watched Jackie retreat, her glossy hair swaying. 

“Well, I like her. I think she’s gonna be good,” she concluded, clasping her hands together. Brooke narrowed her eyes at Jan, whose gaze was still fixed on Jackie. 

“ _Jan-tastic_? What the hell was that?”

Jan gave her a funny look. “What?! You know I love a pun.”

“Not just that. What about your MP thing? You’re seriously going to pass that opportunity up?” 

Jan leant back against the glass door of Darienne’s old office, gazing dreamily at nothing in particular. “Um…yeah. Yeah, I think I’ll stay on. I’m still young, I’ve got time for the whole MP endeavour in a few years’ time. No, I think I’ll stick around here for a bit longer. Things might get interesting.”

Still confused at Jan’s sudden change of heart, Brooke shook her head and shrugged. In her opinion Jan was out of her mind, but if that was her decision then that was that. As Vanessa and Jan chatted excitedly Brooke made her way back to her desk, her head kind of in a daze. A lot was happening and she didn’t really know what the next few months were going to be like. An economist in a political position wasn’t new, but she was still reserved about welcoming Jackie with open arms. Still, whatever would happen she was glad that she had Vanessa and Jan to stumble through it all with. 

God, she was glad Vanessa was staying. 

Looking over to the Comms team she saw that Yvie’s computer was displaying the BBC website, where a live stream of Darienne’s resignation speech was playing. Yvie was sat in her chair, Jaida crouching at her right and Scarlet at her left, Adore peering over Scarlet’s shoulder as Darienne set down her sheets of paper and walked away from the lectern set up outside Downing Street. Yvie threw her hands in the air as if she was praising God.

“The old Minister is dead,” she cried dramatically. “Long live the Minister!”


	2. Press Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brooke and the rest of the advisors accompany Jackie to a series of press interviews in a bid to make her a household name. But it’s not all smooth sailing when they’re blindsided by a rogue interview and a sensationalist, right-wing newspaper article.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: d slur.

Brooke thought that old saying was pretty much spot on- a week was a long time in politics. More fittingly, a week seemed like a year in politics when nobody was talking about you at all, which was exactly the case for Jackie Cox. The expenses scandal had taken up most of the headlines for the past seven days as it had emerged that Darienne apparently hadn’t been the only one that had been doctoring them. There had been a lot of reshuffling within the party as a result of the various resignations that had ensued and Bianca had been close to a massive coronary for the whole week trying to make order out of chaos.

The worst thing about the whole situation was having to watch Nicky Doll on the BBC lunchtime news, sat in front of Chi-Chi Devayne and shaking her head solemnly as she gave their whole party a damning verdict, saying how out of touch with the electorate they were and how much they lacked empathy for the British public. It still made Brooke’s blood boil; the fact that Nicky could accuse them of being out of touch when she grew up on acres of land, was privately educated her whole life and had basically been awarded the job in the Shadow Cabinet by her father and his Etonian schoolboy clique. The irony was almost painful.

Still, a week had been and gone and Jackie hadn’t quite made the splash that Bianca had been hoping for. She’d been given about the equivalent of a column inch across the tabloids and a couple of mentions on TV as part of the reshuffle, but apart from that they might as well have appointed an stuffed aubergine as Darienne’s replacement and the media wouldn’t have given two fucks. Jackie, for her part, seemed suitably disappointed. It was definitely interesting having her in the department, Brooke thought. She was an improvement on Darienne; efficient, motivating, determined. Productivity in the department seemed to have risen by quite an amount and for the first time in months Brooke could actually see Adore’s desk, the clutter and unfinished work almost gone. Jan had certainly started to throw herself into her work a lot more in the past week, which was intriguing for someone who had wanted to quit the job before Jackie arrived. Vanessa, if anything, was just on edge. She was constantly paranoid that Darienne was going to bomb threat Dosac as a result of their betrayal. Much as it made Brooke laugh, she hated seeing Vanessa genuinely worried and had to remind her almost daily that if Darienne could barely be bothered walking across the office to the water cooler then she probably wouldn’t go to the effort of creating an elaborate Guy Fawkes-esque attack on the department. Brooke’s stomach had flipped when Vanessa was finally reassured and flashed her a little shy smile, but that was probably just the result of something she’d eaten.

Definitely not anything to do with Vanessa. 

Although not everything about Jackie’s arrival was positive. Jackie was incredibly strict on the way she wanted things done around the department and was never shy of calling meetings with her three advisors and Nina to clarify protocol or to smack them all over their heads with her latest thought process. For Brooke it reminded her of how annoying she found Jackie, but the other girls in the department seemed incredibly enamoured with her. Scarlet liked her makeup, Adore loved her humour. Vanessa was impressed with how organised and on top of things she was, Yvie admired her knowledge of a variety of different languages. Jaida liked her fashion sense, Nina appreciated how friendly she was to everyone that worked there. Jan seemed to hang off every word she said, nodding enthusiastically at any suggestion Jackie came up with, giggling like a fucking child at any joke she made. It was weird, Brooke thought. Admittedly Jan greeted most things in life with an excitable enthusiasm to match her bullet-train pace of speaking and her energetic movements, and whenever she was around Jackie she was the same but with a hint of something different to it all. She was always so alert, the first to speak up in meetings and give a pro to any con of an idea of Jackie’s. Brooke supposed that must have been the effect Jackie had on people. Well, people who weren’t her.

When Jackie bounced into the department on Monday morning behind Vanessa, she was wearing a black pair of suit trousers, a cream shirt and a matching black suit jacket, and carrying two full trays of Starbucks coffee.

“Good morning, ladies!” she sang, her bright smile dissonant with the grey drizzle outside and the fact that it wasn’t even 9am. “Thought we could all use some coffee this morning, a bit of caffeine to cure those Monday blues! Jaida, I’ve got a skinny latte for you!”

Impressed, Jaida jumped up out of her chair and took the coffee from Jackie with a grateful smile and a polite thank you.

“Yvie, I knew you liked your cappuccino with a shot of hazelnut, and Scarlet without,” Jackie continued, handing out coffee cups like Santa in a shopping mall’s sub-par grotto. “Adore, I got you a hot chocolate, Nina, I couldn’t remember whether or not you liked green tea or camomile so I got you raspberry and apple, is that okay?”

As Nina’s face lit up and reassured her that raspberry and apple was fine, Brooke found herself rolling her eyes. If Jackie wanted to get them all onside with drinks which essentially served as props for the Instagram photos of little white teenagers then she could be Brooke’s guest, but she wasn’t about to start buddying up to her anytime soon. She watched as she handed Vanessa a caramel latte, something inside her burning fiercely as she saw Vanessa flash her angelic smile Jackie’s way. The Minister then moved on to Jan’s desk, her cheerful demeanour suddenly becoming a little repressed, as if she was holding back out of embarrassment or fear or something else that wouldn’t make any sense at all. Brooke and Vanessa seemed to be the only ones watching as Jan looked up at Jackie from under her lashes. 

“Hi,” Jackie began, smiling almost tentatively at the other girl. Jan tucked her long, blonde hair behind her ears and returned the smile. 

“Morning, Jackie,” she replied brightly, her voice seeming a little nervous too. 

“I got you a peppermint hot chocolate,” Jackie held out the cup nervously as Jan’s face lit up. “I remembered you saying the other day that you liked mint and chocolate together so…I thought you might like it.”

Brooke screwed her face up. That had been a conversation that had taken place last Friday, where Brooke had insisted the entire concept of pairing chocolate with what was essentially just a leaf was insane, and Jan passionately defended the gross combination. It was a silly debate, the kind that could probably be overheard in an infant school playground, and the week had worn them down so their level of intellectualism hadn’t exactly been high. They’d been in the car on the way to Prime Minister’s Questions and from what Brooke could remember Jackie hadn’t even taken part in the conversation. So how could she remember that?

“I did say that,” Jan beamed excitedly, looking up at Jackie with sparkling eyes. “Thank you so much! That’s really sweet.”

Jackie gave an awkward little salute which made Jan giggle, and then moved swiftly on to Brooke’s desk. 

“You always liked black coffee at Uni, so...I’m hoping that hasn’t changed,” she shrugged, smiling hesitantly as she rested the cup on Brooke’s desk. Brooke regarded it for a second then turned to face Jackie.

“You shouldn’t buy coffee from tax-dodging companies. It reflects badly on the party,” she said bluntly, feeling a sense of schadenfreude as Jackie’s smile faltered somewhat. _That’ll teach her to make Vanessa so goddamned happy._

Wait, where the fuck had that come from?

Feeling a little guilty and coming to the conclusion that she could really use some coffee, Brooke shot Jackie the tiniest smile before adding, “Thanks, though. I guess.”

Satisfied, Jackie turned and walked quickly into her office with her own coffee. Brooke exhaled deeply as she relaxed a little in her chair. She was being a bitch, she knew that, but in her eyes Jackie still had to prove herself to her. Buying them all coffee and staying out of the public eye was hardly going to cut it.

Brooke hadn’t even noticed Vanessa wheeling her way towards her on her swivel chair until she was right at her side. 

“Morning, Ms Crocodile,” she smirked playfully, nudging Brooke with her shoulder. Brooke narrowed her eyes at her in response. 

“Ms Crocodile?” she sighed, too tired to even try to play along. 

“‘Cause you’re so snappy,” Vanessa giggled at her own joke, her caffeine-induced cheerfulness completely unwavering. Brooke tilted her head and fixed her friend with an unimpressed glare. Nonplussed, Vanessa bopped her on the nose with her finger. “Is someone a lil’ jealous of our new Minister friend?”

“Jealous, please,” Brooke scoffed. “In all the time you’ve known me have I ever been jealous of anyone?”

“Yes,” Vanessa said simply. Brooke rolled her eyes.

“I have not!”

“Have too, bitch.”

Brooke sighed, desperate to move the conversation out of the back-and-forth bickering that it had turned into. “Shut up. How was your weekend, anyway?”

“Oh, not bad. Me, Scarlet an’ Yvie went for lunch with Silk an’ Kiki on Saturday at that new Italian that opened up in Soho. Service was shit but the food was incredible so we’re for sure goin’ back. You should’ve come with us!”

Brooke grimaced. “You know how I feel about anyone who works for Nicky Doll, V.”

“Aw, c’mon, Brooke Lynn. Silk an’ Akeria work for the civil service, not Nicky,” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “I mean, look at those girls and tell me honestly if there’s anyone sat at those desks that’s party loyal.”

Brooke cast her eyes over to the comms team. Scarlet and Yvie had fashioned the assorted litter on their desks into a mini game of table football, Nina was reading some form of gossip magazine. At first glance it looked as if Adore was actually doing work until Brooke realised the phone she was talking into was definitely not a work phone, the huge fluffy pink phone case giving her away. Jaida was painting her nails red. 

Knowing that Vanessa had her defeated, Brooke cast her gaze to the keyboard surreptitiously. “Things might be different at Nicky’s end, though.”

“Brooke, Kiki told us that last week Nicky and her advisors went to the treasury and the entire comms team played jousting with their wheely chairs across the office until they got back.”

“Even Asia?”

“The whole thing had been her idea! C’mon, we’re goin’ for drinks tonight after work. Please come? Please?” Vanessa pleaded with a pout, taking Brooke’s hand and in turn sending an electric charge straight to her heart. “I always miss you when you ain’t with us.”

Well. This changed the whole situation. Vanessa missed her, and so clearly if Brooke came out tonight that would make her happy. All Brooke really wanted was to make Vanessa happy. No- that sounded weird, like she had a crush on her or something- all it was was that Brooke just loved seeing Vanessa smile and the prospect of having that smile directed at her was worth spending time with the opposition. Taking a long sip of her coffee, Brooke was amused by the way Vanessa’s face was frozen in suspense.

“Okay, I’ll come tonight. But!” Brooke held a hand up, attempting to silence the excited Vanessa who was jumping up and down in her chair like an energetic puppy. “- I’m not staying too long, and you’re buying me a drink.”

“Sweet!” Vanessa beamed, giving Brooke’s hand one last squeeze and letting it go. Beginning to wheel her chair back to her own desk, she threw her head back and groaned. “Man, I can’t wait for this day to be over now!”

Trying to recover from her interaction with the human cocker spaniel herself, she turned her attention to the comms team. 

“Do you guys not have some actual work to be getting on with?”

“Look around you, Brooke. This place is like dark ages Russia,” Yvie stretched out in her chair lazily, distracted from her game. “There’s no phones ringing. Nobody gives a shit about Dosac at the moment, they’re still too busy going over the finer details of everyone’s expenses and why Coco Montrese claimed for a duck house.”

Brooke had to give the media that; Coco’s duck house did seem to win the award for most ridiculous claim made, and the very fact that it had cost £850 was front page-worthy in itself. Sighing, she stood up from her desk and started to walk towards Jackie’s office.

“I’ll go talk to her,” she reassured the girls, who were no longer paying attention and had resumed their game of table football. Knocking on Jackie’s glass door, she could see her lounging in her chair, her feet up on the table as she scrolled at her laptop, bored. 

“Come in!”

Brooke opened the door and made her way inside. Not bothering to sit, she opted instead to lean against the wall. “Do you want to give those girls out there something to work on instead of just coffee?”

Jackie gave her a disgruntled glare, swinging her heels down off the desk and onto the floor with a heavy clunk. 

“They’re not working on anything because there isn’t anything _to_ work on. I can’t get anything I want off ground until the media actually acknowledge my existence. I mean, am I a real person? Am I a ghost?”

“Well you’re not transparent. But then again I don’t actually know what a ghost looks like, so that doesn’t totally rule you out. They do take on human form sometimes, don’t they?”

“Brooke, I’m serious!” Jackie snapped at her, Brooke biting back a laugh and apologising. “I mean, what do you have to do to get on TV these days? Soil myself? Eat a used tampon? I don’t know what the minimum requirements are anymore.”

“Please don’t do either of those things.”

“You know what I mean. I mean, where’s Bianca been? I’ve not seen her since my first day.”

“She’s been too busy drinking the blood of those old Ministers she had to fire and reshuffling the entire party like some horrific human card deck. You’ll see her again, don’t worry. She probably has a plan for this whole radio silence the media have decided to pull on you,” Brooke found herself reassuring Jackie, who was slumped forward with her head in her hands looking disappointed. Obviously comforted somewhat, she sat up straight in her chair and smiled at Brooke.

“Thanks, Brooke Lynn. I guess I could start preparing for that incapacity benefits debate on Friday?” she shrugged, pulling her laptop in front of her decisively.

“That’s the spirit,” Brooke gave the air an anaemic punch as she strolled out of the office again. Sitting back in her chair and sighing, she hoped that Bianca would show up before the day was out. 

***

Bianca did have a plan.

She turned up to the office at around nine-thirty, around half an hour after Brooke had spoken to Jackie, and greeted everyone with milder insults than normal which made Brooke think that she was in a good mood. As she called for Nina, Brooke, Vanessa and Jan to come to the office, something told Brooke that the day was about to get a lot more high-octane.

Bianca liked Jackie from what Brooke saw of their first meeting. She supposed “liked” was the wrong word- “highly tolerated”, or just simply “didn’t want to strangle her” would be more appropriate. Brooke thought it was probably because Jackie had that way of being pleasant enough without coming across as an ass-kisser or a bullshitter, two things that Bianca despised. 

“Right, the Loose Women panel,” she began, casting her hand across the girls in the room. “I’ve noticed that Jackie is getting about as much attention as Jedward’s third album. Nina I know you’re not quite up to speed with popular culture so in layman’s terms, that’s fuck all attention.”

Nina bristled with offence as the other girls laughed. “I’m not a damn fossil, thank you very much.”

“Anyway, all that is going to change today,” Bianca turned to face Jackie, looking her directly in the eye. “I’ve got you three interviews with major newspapers.”

“What, nothing on TV?” Jackie cried, frustrated. Brooke saw Vanessa visibly stiffen out of the corner of her eye in preparation for the oncoming hellfire Bianca was about to unleash. 

“Oh I’m sorry, Marilyn Monroe! In case you haven’t noticed, you’re a cabinet minister, not a fucking film star,” Bianca spat, her eyes glinting as she put Jackie in her place. “I’ve been busting my fucking ovaries to get this massive expenses fuck-up sorted and you want to argue the toss between having your face plastered over the papers or beamed into people’s living rooms? Calm the hell down. You have a fucking bundle to learn, let me tell you.”

Vanessa immediately hopped in, eager to dispel the tension that Bianca had created in the room. “Do we know who the interviews are with, Bianca?”

“We’ve got a print piece with The Independent. Laila McQueen is doing that one, she’s still young and will probably do the interview hungover so you should be alright. The second is for a supplement in The Times and it’s got an accompanying photoshoot. I think Fame is in charge of all that.”

Jackie laughed derisively, raising a single eyebrow in disbelief. “Fame?”

“Yes, Fame! That’s the bitch’s fucking name, and also what you’ll be avoiding for the rest of your career if you try to take the piss one more time!” Bianca folded her arms in defiance. Calming slightly and returning to her point, she continued. “Your last one of the day is with The Daily Mail.”

Brooke involuntarily sucked in a breath of air through her teeth. The Daily Mail had the potential to be a danger depending on who was conducting the interview. 

“Do we know who we’ve got for that one?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. 

“We don’t yet but it’s definitely not Gia Gunn. She’s away in Spain covering Yara Sofia’s wedding or some other tat,” Bianca curled her top lip, clearly unimpressed with the current standard of journalism. 

“Thank God. I don’t think I could sit listening to her speak through her nasal passages for a whole half hour,” Jan massaged her temples, already looking exhausted.

“Anyway, that’s an online interview so at least you’ll reach a larger audience. Your interview with McQueen is at 10.30, after that you’ll have a car to transport you and fucking Little Mix here to the next two. Are you clear on what the line is for everything?” Bianca asked, training one nail on Jackie’s face like a sniper. 

“Yes,” Jackie said immediately. 

“You’re still pushing what we spoke about last week?”

“Respond more compassionately to the refugee crisis, cut the banker’s bonuses and stop the war on benefit claimants,” Jackie fired off passionately, reminding Brooke of every single uni debate she’d ever taken part in.

Maybe she was going to be a force for good for this party after all.

“Jesus, nobody could accuse you of being wishy-washy,” Bianca raised her eyebrows, the closest thing to impressed Brooke had seen her in weeks. “Okay, go out into the world and make your mark! Make sure it’s not a skid mark. I’ll be back to check in at 4.”

With that, Bianca was carried away by her Jimmy Choos before Brooke could even wave her goodbye. Heaving a huge exhale, Jackie sat up in her chair and drummed her nails on the desk in what was either excitement or nervousness. 

“Look at you, Miss Cox! A photoshoot already for the next big thing in politics? You must’ve done somethin’ right,” Vanessa beamed at her, relaxing against the filing cabinet she had been standing beside. Jackie raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“She’s right, this is a big deal, Jackie! You’re going to be Jan-tabulous,” Jan grinned, Brooke barely containing the way her eyes rolled at the awful pun.

Jackie’s cheeks became a little flushed as she gave Jan a hopeful smile. “You think so?” 

Jan looked to the floor momentarily, tucking an unruly section of hair behind one ear as her own cheeks began to go a little pink. “Of course you will! Believe in yourself, I believe in you! I mean...we. We all do.”

The room was suddenly silent as Jackie unsuccessfully tried to hold back a massive smile, Jan still blushing and looking at the floor timidly. Looking to Nina incredulously, Brooke decided to swiftly move them all on from whatever the fuck this was.

“Told you Bianca would have a plan, didn’t I?” she raised her eyebrows smugly, stretching out in her chair like a cat.

“You did indeed, Brooke Lynn,” Jackie indulged her, smirking a little.

“Much as I’d love to join in the Brooke Was Right All Along celebrations, we do only have half an hour until we need to be at The Independent,” Nina clicked her pen impatiently, prompting a flurry of activity within the office. Vanessa was asked to phone for Jackie’s driver, Jan and Brooke were to collect any and all relevant notes that could be useful for the interviews, and Nina was asked to stay and go over the media briefing with Jackie one more time. As the girls rushed around the department getting things ready, Adore shouted over from the comms team asking what in the real and actual fuck was going on. 

“Bianca’s kickstarting Jackie’s career so we’re going to be running around various media offices all day. We’re paying your girlfriend a visit, by the way,” Jan smirked, laughing at the way Adore blushed slightly and turned her attention back to her keyboard. 

“Hey, you’re in no position to speak, girl,” Brooke lowered her voice as she joined Jan as she flicked her way through a massive filing cabinet. “What the hell was that in there? _Ohh, we all believe in you Jackie, you’re going to do great, my eyes are actually made of heart emojis!_ ” 

Brooke immediately regretted her comments as Jan suddenly hit her with a massive lever arch file, her face unimpressed. “I’m simply trying to be nice and supportive. You know, being nice? You maybe did it once back in 2001 or something?”

Unable to help herself, Brooke let out a peal of laughter. “Shut up. Let’s get moving before Bianca comes back to yell at us for being late.”

With the five girls all assembled, they began to make their way to the lift. Jackie looked every inch the confident, successful politician in her smart outfit, shining, polished patent heels, and perfect makeup. However inside Brooke knew she would be terrified and that in turn terrified her. As much as she still didn’t have a huge amount of faith in Jackie she hoped and prayed she wouldn’t fuck up. As they were about to step into the lift, Brooke felt a sudden tug on the sleeve of her coat. Turning round, she saw Adore looking a little nervous. 

“Brooke,” she whispered, looking over her shoulder at the rest of the comms team anxiously. “I’m not _really_ seeing Laila McQueen...well, not _seeing_ seeing her. But, uh...if you catch her. Could you tell her I said hi?”

Giving her a quick look up and down, Brooke could tell Adore was serious. 

“Don’t tell me you’ve developed feelings for her? Because this could be a total mess, Adore. If you get into a relationship with her and put one foot out of line our party’s going to be all over the papers like cat piss,” she warned her sternly. Adore seemed to already have considered this, and tugged down the sleeves of her smart shirt over her knuckles. 

“I know what I’m getting myself into. Just…let her know, okay?” 

With that, Adore turned on her six-inch heels and walked back to her desk, her face hiding any trace of the conversation ever having happened. Still slightly thrown, Brooke walked into the lift just as the doors closed behind her. 

“Timed that well, genius,” Jan quipped as Brooke quickly fixed her hair in the mirror. 

What was happening to the office, Brooke wondered. Scarlet and Yvie were all loved up, something (God knows what) was going on with Jan, and now Adore was trying to make things serious with a journalist, of all people. 

At least she could say that she’d never get herself into something as ridiculous as a workplace relationship. 

***

Sitting at the sidelines and watching Jackie’s interview with Laila McQueen wrap up, Brooke breathed a huge sigh of relief. It had gone well. Really well, actually. From the moment Jackie had walked in and greeted the young journalist, it was clear that Laila was impressed by her and the interview had seemed more like a friendly chat if anything. No matter how well it had gone, though, it hadn’t stopped Vanessa being on edge and she’d sat and picked at the split ends in her hair for the entire hour, completely tense. Jan had sat enraptured by the entire thing, her elbows resting on her knees and her head resting in her hands as she listened to Jackie talk. Nina, on the other hand, had slowly made her way through the entire plate of biscuits The Independent had provided them, seemingly not the least bit bothered whether Jackie succeeded or failed. 

Remembering her promise to Adore, Brooke went up and greeted the journalist just as they were all making to leave. 

“Ms McQueen.”

“Brooke Lynn, right?” she smiled, holding out an overly-formal hand for her to shake. Brooke took it tentatively.

“Um, yeah. How did you-”

“Sweetheart, I work in journalism. We make it our business to know everything about anyone who’s anyone, or who knows anyone who’s anyone even remotely,” Laila reeled off cryptically. 

“Uh, great. Anyway, I just came over to say that Adore says hi. Clearly she’s not in any way bothered about seeming desperate,” she added at the end as she inwardly despaired of the junior comms officer. Laila shook her head and gave a funny sort of laugh. 

“Well. Tell her she’s got my number if she ever wants to tell me herself,” she smiled flirtatiously as she swaggered away, as if she’d been talking to Adore herself. Cursing herself for allowing herself to be intimidated by some fresh-out-the-womb journalist, Brooke quickly caught up with the other girls in the car. 

Interview number two and the accompanying photoshoot was less perfect. Jackie had the detriment of being interviewed by the infamous Fame, who asked her a lot more hard-hitting questions. Jackie gave as good as she got and fired back counterattacking statements, facts and figures as the four other girls sat and watched the verbal tennis match that was unfolding in front of them. Still, the photoshoot went a little better and Jackie seemed pretty confident in front of the camera. If Brooke was feeling generous she would even say that the Minister looked good, but it was already half past one and she’d still not had any lunch so to say she was feeling irritable was putting it mildly. With a curt nod and a handshake from Fame they were out of the building and into the car to the next interview, Jackie squashed between Vanessa and Jan and Brooke and Nina sitting opposite them. With a groan, Jackie immediately pulled off her heels. 

“Oh God, Jackie, could you at least wait until we’re not in the car to do that? You’re not at home in front of the TV, this is a Cabinet Minister’s Bentley,” Brooke turned her nose up. 

“Hey, lay off! These heels are just hard to break in. God, I’m already exhausted,” Jackie sighed, tipping her head to the side and resting it on Jan’s shoulder. Brooke watched as Jan’s eyes grew momentarily huge, then as she stayed painfully still as if Jackie was a little bird or butterfly that she didn’t want to scare away.

“Nina,” Vanessa asked as she leant forward in her seat and furrowed her brow. “You got any word on who’s doing this interview yet?”

“I only know what Bianca’s told us, I’m afraid. When I know, you’ll know,” Nina replied lazily, scrolling through her work phone with boredom. Vexed, Brooke frowned at her.

“Nina, what actually is your job title? Communications officer with the society for the deaf, blind and dumb?”

“Okay! Okay, God, I’ll send a few texts. Chill,” Nina rolled her eyes, beginning to tap at her phone. 

“She’s going to send a few texts. Some really groundbreaking stuff here, folks.”

“Will you two stop with the bickering?” Vanessa hissed, slamming her folder on her knees for emphasis. “We still got ten minutes in this car, can’t we all arrive at The Daily Mail without any limbs havin’ been hacked off?”

There was a frosty silence in the car as it rumbled along the streets of London, every so often getting caught in inevitable traffic and being crowded up in between huge, double-decker buses and black cabs. Brooke was worried. Bianca usually knew by now who was conducting the interview and the fact that she apparently didn’t yet, or had just neglected to tell them, wasn’t good. 

After a few minutes in which the silence was only broken by the rumble of the car’s engine, Nina spoke again.

“Huh. That’s interesting.”

All four of the others turned to face Nina, who was looking at her phone quizzically. Obviously taking their concerned faces as a prompt, she continued talking. 

“The interview is with…Shangela Wadely?”

The silence continued, only this time everyone’s faces became somewhat more crumpled up. 

“Ring any bells with anyone?” Nina asked tentatively.

Brooke was stumped. She had been expecting perhaps Delta and had been bracing herself for a rocky interview at best, but she had never heard of this Shangela girl before. She must have been new on the scene, which was a worry because now they had no idea what to make of how this interview would go. 

“Whoever the bitch is, I’m sure the interview will go amazin’,” Vanessa eventually smiled, her optimism and positivity making Brooke worry a little less.

“Jan-mazing!” Jan piped up happily, earning her a groan from the four other women in the car.

Eventually arriving at the offices of The Daily Mail, they were ushered through various corridors by a receptionist who was clearly rushed off her feet. She deposited them in some form of lobby, told them that Shangela would be with them in a few minutes, and after that they were left on their own. Trying to get her bearings, Brooke took in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that everything was eerily pink. The odd sofa-slash-bench things they were sitting on were pink, the carpet was a light pink, the walls looked like something in Barbie’s dream house. It was as if they’d turned up to be interviewed by Delores Umbridge. As each minute passed, Brooke became less and less able to take her surroundings seriously.

“How the hell is this the décor in a newspaper office? I feel like I’m sitting inside a womb,” she eventually said, not without a generous helping of disgust. 

“Well, Bianca did say it was an online piece. Maybe they’re more lax about their offices in the web department?” Jan shrugged, scrutinizing the furniture around them. 

Something about it still wasn’t sitting right with Brooke. However, she barely had time to think too much about it as a bright, bubbly woman emerged from a pink corridor to greet them. She was wearing a short, blue shift dress which complimented her dark skin and glossy brown hair, and her makeup was perfect. This girl seemed miles away from the journalists Brooke knew, most of them all usually hungover or sporting their makeup from the night before or bad-tempered. The girl introduced herself as Shangela and showed them all through to another eerily pink room but this time set up and equipped for an interview, another girl getting various things ready inside. To Brooke’s delight there was a sandwich platter sat on a table at the back of the room. Reaching for a plate, she began piling them up on top of each other, reigning it in with embarrassment as she saw Vanessa standing beside her. Looking at her friend, she noticed a small, worried frown on her face.

“Hey. This will go fine, okay? Jackie’s got this.”

“I know. I’m just nervous, Brooke. I’ve been to the web offices before, we both have, when we were with Darienne. This looks like we’re in the wrong place,” Vanessa whispered, tugging on a lock of hair. 

“Yeah, well, maybe Jan’s right. Maybe this is just an extension or another section of the offices or something. We’ll definitely be in the web department, even if it looks like the inside of Sharpay Evans’ locker. Don’t worry,” Brooke gave Vanessa a brave smile. 

“You’re so good at calming me down. Sorry for bein’ a mess,” Vanessa smiled back somewhat apologetically. “Thanks, Brooke Lynn.” 

Before Brooke could even open her mouth to reply, Vanessa had sat down on the ridiculously pink sofa beside Jan and Nina, waiting for the interview to begin. All appetite suddenly gone, Brooke replaced the plate of sandwiches on the table and joined Vanessa on the sofa. She was so warm and the room was so cold and Brooke had to fight the urge to cuddle up to her. 

She watched as Shangela sat down in the chair opposite Jackie, the random girl who was clearly her assistant handing her a bottle of water, her notes and her recorder. 

“So we’ll just get straight into it and we’ll edit bits out and together as necessary, okay?” Shangela smiled at Jackie, who nodded a little nervously and shifted in her seat. Picking up her recorder, Shangela pressed a single button and sat back in her seat. “Interview with Jackie Cox, commencing at 15.07 on the 14th of October, 2019. Hi Jackie, it’s so good to have you with us today!”

“It’s good to be here, Shangela. I’m just excited to show your readers what I’m about and what they can expect from the party with me as head of the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship,” Jackie reeled off, smiling pleasantly back at her. 

This was a good start. Shangela seemed cheerful enough, relatable and happy and keen to present Jackie in a good light. 

“I have to say, I’m absolutely loving this outfit you have on, Jackie. Can you tell me a little bit about it, why did you choose that particular one today?” Shangela asked, leaning forward in her seat.

Brooke furrowed her brow. This wasn’t exactly ideal- Jackie was here to talk policy, not the contents of her walk-in wardrobe. Reminding herself that these sorts of questions were unfortunately expected if you were a woman working in politics, Brooke tried to relax. This was just one stupid question about fashion to try and endear her to the female electorate, she was sure Shangela meant well. Jackie looked somewhat like a deer in the headlights as she cast a quick glance to her advisors sitting on the sofa. Brooke nodded rapidly and enthusiastically, circling her hand in a bit to move Jackie along. 

“Um, well it’s black and white. And…it’s a nice suit. And I chose it because I liked it and I needed to look smart for work, I guess?” she shrugged, smoothing down her trousers self-consciously. 

“It’s gorgeous. Where did you pick it up?” 

“Um…from the hangers in my wardrobe?” Jackie laughed awkwardly, glancing again to the girls on the sofa. “I’m sorry I don’t, um…?”

Shangela laughed with her, slightly falsely, Brooke noted. That tight feeling in her stomach returned again, and she willed Shangela to start asking her about Jackie’s actual job sooner rather than later. 

“I have to say, Jackie, you’ve got a great sense of humour, some great style- the guys must be falling over each other to snap you up! Tell me, is there a man in your life at the moment?” Shangela continued, reaching for her water bottle. Jackie’s mouth dropped open a little bit, something between a laugh and a cough coming out. She looked clearly offended, and if she was being honest Brooke didn’t blame her. The archaic questions were beginning to wear thin, and Jackie was obviously keen to start talking about what she was actually there for, instead of whatever this was. 

“Well, I’m not interested in men at all actually, so no,” Jackie replied curtly, her face completely unimpressed and her upper lip curled. There were two ticks of silence where it was Shangela’s turn to look taken aback, and Brooke didn’t dare turn her head to gauge the reactions of the other girls. Shuffling through her notes Shangela continued, the false smile back on her face again. 

“So, you’re a woman in politics- a lesbian woman in politics-” Shangela corrected herself, adding in the extra word as if it was somehow relevant to what she was about to ask her. “Are there any other women around Westminster whose style you’re particularly jealous of at the moment? Or indeed, anyone that you’ve got your eye on?”

Jackie raised both her eyebrows and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth very deliberately, as if she was considering what she was about to say. “I don’t really know how this is relevant at all, to be quite honest. Can we move on?”

Brooke jumped as Vanessa’s hand flew out and grabbed her wrist, her nails almost digging into her skin. Glancing quickly at her, Brooke saw that Vanessa’s face looked absolutely terrified, like she’d just been thrown off a ski jump blindfold. 

“It’s okay, she’s got this,” Brooke whispered to her, Vanessa nodding ever so slightly but still not releasing her grip on Brooke’s arm. 

She could live with that, even if it was starting to cut off the blood circulation to her hand.

“Of course, no problem,” Shangela nodded, glancing at Jackie through narrowed eyes and looking once more at her notes. Soon enough the fake smile was back on her face. “So, as a Cabinet Minister, you’re obviously in a position where you’re sometimes out of the department working all day.”

Delighted that Shangela had finally deviated from asking her such pointless questions, Jackie immediately launched into an answer. 

“I’m so glad you brought that up because just today I had an interview with The Independent, where we spoke about my targets over my time in office. I want to make sure that the party is-”

“Ah, so even today you’ve been on the go!” Shangela cut her off, and Brooke thought she couldn’t sound more patronising if she’d tried. “So when you find you’ve got a day like this, what sort of things do you keep in your handbag to make sure you can confidently go about your work and slay whilst doing it?”

Jackie looked momentarily as if she’d been slapped. Ignoring the question, she turned to directly face the girls, and Vanessa’s nails dug into Brooke’s skin once more. 

“Is this interview definitely with The Daily Mail or for a 1950’s edition of Cosmo?” she laughed, her eyes dark. Brooke heard Jan suck in an enormous breath of air between her teeth. Vanessa froze. Nina looked like she hadn’t a clue what to say. Brooke was rarely stuck for how to react, but even she was lost for words. Shangela was looking at her assistant with wide eyes, as if she didn’t know either. 

“Miss Cox, these questions are simply designed to appeal to the female electorate and help portray you in a favourable, relatable light,” Shangela explained through gritted teeth. 

“Well, here. Start maybe by not dumbing them down so much and assuming that the only way they can understand politics is through the finer points of my damn washing basket,” Jackie snapped, standing up from the chair and grabbing her bag decisively. “Ladies, come on. I’m not hugely interested in giving these people any more of my time.” 

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph I feel like I’ve just been pushed out of a plane,” Vanessa whispered breathlessly, frozen to the sofa. 

“Jackie, maybe Shangela has some different questions-” Brooke began, desperately trying to placate both the Minister and Shangela. Already the journalist’s face was scheming, as if she knew what headline she was going to run already. 

“Screw that, I’m not staying here! If I wanted to sit through half an hour of painful misogyny I could just go and stand outside a building site wearing fishnets and a push-up bra. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Jackie insisted, wrenching open the door. Dutifully, Brooke stood up and followed her, Vanessa not once letting go of her wrist. She couldn’t see Jan’s face, but somehow she already knew it would be similar to her own. As Jackie stormed through the offices and back outside like a tornado, Brooke started thinking less about the diabolical interview and more about how they were going to firefight the inevitable aftermath. 

Finally outside, Jackie took a deep breath as the other girls watched her nervously. 

“Nina, phone the driver please and tell him if he’s not here within the next two minutes I’m going to cut off his face, turn it into a mask and wear it to the next fancy dress party I get invited to,” she finally blurted out, still clearly angry and shaken by the interview. 

“I’ll, um. I’ll maybe just tell him to be as quick as he can,” Nina reasoned, shuffling off to a quieter stretch of the street to make the phonecall.

“What the flying pelican hell was that?!” Jackie cried, staring at the three advisors with incredulity. “Did we time travel? Are we suddenly in the 1950’s? Christ, I thought that these days they’d at least be subtle about sexist bullshit like this, but no!”

“You know you’ve just massively fucked up, right? You can’t just storm out of an interview like that and expect it not to be all over the front pages tomorrow. You’re not any better at just learning to keep your mouth shut now than you were eight years ago, are you?” Brooke snapped, her last sentence out before she knew it. Vanessa was upset, and in Brooke’s view Jackie was the one that had made her upset, so therefore Jackie was getting all of her blame right now and not that airhead journalist. 

“So I was just supposed to sit there and answer all that crap like a good little Stepford politician?! Jesus, Brooke, do you not understand just how patronising all of those questions were?” 

“Jackie’s right,” Jan spoke up slowly. “To sit through an interview like that would’ve portrayed her as someone that’s never going to be of any threat in Westminster whatsoever. This is going to paint her as someone that should be taken seriously, someone that doesn’t fuck about.”

Upon hearing Jan’s words Jackie seemed to calm down by a good 50%, and smiled at her gratefully. In response Jan’s cheeks flushed and she looked to the ground. Brooke couldn’t help but roll her eyes. This was absolute madness, and she couldn’t be the only one that was terrified at how the fallout of this would affect Jackie’s position in the party. Giving up on both of them, she turned her attention instead to Vanessa, who was sitting alone on the steps leading up to The Daily Mail’s offices. 

“V,” Brooke murmured as she sat down beside her. “You okay?”

Vanessa sat up slowly, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm herself down. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Jeez, I’ve been through some stresses in this job but that was just…a new level. I’ve never seen anythin’ like that before. She’s going to get slaughtered by them, Brooke Lynn. What are we gonna do?”

Without thinking, Brooke put her arm around Vanessa’s shoulders, pulling her in close in an attempt to help her relax. “We’ll do what we always do, baby. Spin the entire situation. And you’re going to be the best at it out of us all. You’re clever and creative and crafty, and you’re going to be an asset to us this afternoon. And probably this evening, to be honest, I doubt this is all going to be sorted in a matter of hours.”

Brooke’s heart hammered as Vanessa looked up to her, her eyes wide and dark and so gorgeous that Brooke briefly lost her breath. She felt suddenly as if she should say something to her, tell her something, but she didn’t quite know what.

Brooke’s gaze was averted from Vanessa’s eyes by a sleek black car pulling up on the road in front of them. 

“Jackie, the car!” Brooke yelled up the steps, standing up and taking Vanessa’s hand without thinking. 

“This’ll all be okay, right?” Vanessa asked, squeezing Brooke’s hand tentatively. 

“Hey. We’re the dream team, remember? This’ll be easy,” Brooke smiled, stepping into the car and praying inwardly that she was right.

*** 

It was front page of The Daily Mail’s main website in a matter of hours. 

_EXCLUSIVE: AS JACKIE COX WAVES HER SEXUALITY IN OUR FACES AND STORMS OUT OF INTERVIEW, WE SAY…PLUG THE DYKE!_

“Wow. I knew they were sensationalist, but I didn’t realise they’d be quite so flippant about plastering a slur all over their website like that,” Nina said awkwardly, as the other girls sat open-mouthed in front of their own monitors. 

“I…actually can’t believe they published this,” Vanessa whispered, clearly in shock. 

Brooke couldn’t believe it either. She knew that the world hadn’t suddenly been cured of all bigotry just because women had rights and the LGBT community could vote, but she was amazed that the newspaper had managed to get away with something quite so blatantly homophobic. 

“Is Jackie okay…?” she spoke up, casting an eye to the glass office where Jackie appeared to have her head in her hands. Immediately, Jan sprang up from her seat. 

“I’ll go talk to her,” she said, already halfway across the office on her way to Jackie’s door. 

Even Bianca was silent, perched at Vanessa’s desk like a bird of prey. She’d practically lain in wait for them at the office, somehow already aware of what had gone on at The Daily Mail, and had given that one single blood vein on her forehead a good exercise as she yelled at Jackie until she was purple-faced. It turned out that with a simple Google search, Shangela Wadely could be identified as the editor-in-chief of Femail, the Daily Mail’s online section devoted entirely to women. Brooke couldn’t even summon the energy to be mad at Nina for not doing her research. If she was being honest, knowing the segment of the website they were doing an interview for beforehand wouldn’t really have changed the situation. The questions would still have been ridiculous, like some mad parody of a TV show created 60 years ago, and Jackie still would’ve probably not wanted to answer them. 

Once Bianca had finished incinerating them all she had worked together with Jackie and the advisors to sort out a line. The dilemma soon became clear; did Jackie come out and address misogyny in the media as an important issue to be tackled or would that make too much noise for a minister who’d only been a week in office? Jan had been enthusiastically pushing the pro-feminist stance, googling those _This Is What A Feminist Looks Like_ t-shirts before the cons of the argument could even be established. Brooke had been wary of it herself, scared of what the dangers of being so outspoken could pose. 

“You could really split the electorate with this, Jackie. You know what the public are like, half of them still see the word ‘feminist’ and sharpen their pitchforks before you can even explain what the word actually means. It’s risky,” she’d mused, biting on the end of her pen. She’d looked up at Bianca, about to ask her what she’d thought when Nina had yelled that The Daily Mail had the story up on their website, and they had all dashed to their monitors to check. 

Most of them were still staring at the headline in shock. 

“Bianca,” Brooke said, quietly but not so that she couldn’t hear. “What the fuck do we do now?”

Bianca was deep in thought for a few seconds, then suddenly she sprang up from Vanessa’s desk, thundering across the floor. “Okay, this is what we’re going to run with! The homophobia and misogyny in the British media is rife and today it has reared its ugly head. Call for condemnation of The Daily Mail, set fire to their houses, fuckin’ eat their children, I don’t care! But just let everyone know that if they even so much as _try_ to make Jackie look like the bad guy in this situation, then they’ll have _me_ to answer to!”

Brooke immediately took to her phone, opening up her list of contacts and settling first on Dida at The Telegraph. Bianca didn’t usually fully show too much kindness to members of the cabinet, but maybe she was a fan of Jackie after all. Brooke had never seen her get quite so defensive over one of her Ministers before, but then again that headline had been disgusting and she wasn’t surprised that Bianca was enraged. As Jan dashed out of Jackie’s office and hit the phone, Brooke found herself hoping that Jackie was alright. Just because she still wasn’t sold about her as a Minister didn’t mean she had any right to put up with shit like that from any news outlet.

A series of conversations and constantly ringing phones later and Brooke still hadn’t reached the halfway point in her list of contacts or was even a quarter of the way through. Her throat was bone dry from repeating the same thing over and over again, and from the looks of it everyone in the office felt the same. Even Bianca seemed to be at risk of carpal tunnel from the force at which she was typing things into her phone. It had reached almost five o’clock and it didn’t appear as if the newspapers were going to let up, or indeed if any of them were going to be heading home anytime soon. So when Nina’s phone rang for what seemed to be the thousandth time, nobody paid any attention at first. That was until she ran over to Bianca. 

“Bianca! Bianca, this is important!” Nina hissed, the phone cord stretching to inhuman proportions as Nina leant over to where Bianca stood. “I’ve got _Widow Von’Du_ on the phone.”

There was suddenly a moment where everyone in the department held their breath, then immediately made their excuses to whoever they were on the phone to and hung up. 

“Jackie, get out here!” Bianca yelled into Jackie’s office. Obviously bracing herself for more bad news, Jackie trudged out of her office, her face holding a brave smile despite the defeat in her eyes.

“What’s the development, then? Is The Daily Mail’s front page tomorrow just a huge portrait picture of me with another massive slur in capital letters and size 72 font?” she joked despairingly. Jan was the first to speak, clearly excited at the prospect of cheering Jackie up.

“No, Jackie, this is good! Nina has Widow Von’Du on the phone!” she whispered, as if she was conscious that Widow could hear them through the phone.

“What?!”

“Yes! She’s in my hand right now! Apparently she admired your stance against the sexism that’s still so rife in politics and she wants you on the six o’clock news to discuss it with her!” Nina beamed, the phone still pressed to her chest. 

Jackie’s entire face immediately changed, her expression first shocked, then sort of confused, and then finally relieved happiness as she struggled to get her words out. “Tell her I’ll be there!”

“Jackie, are you sure this is a good-”

“Tell her I’ll fucking be there, before she hangs up! Oh my God, Widow Von’Du. I’m going to be interviewed by Widow Von’Du, fuck!” Jackie squealed excitedly, spontaneously crushing Jan in a tight hug. 

Brooke couldn’t help but smile fondly at Jackie. She was clearly happy, excited at the prospect of turning the day around. Part of her was apprehensive about the fact she was about to be interviewed by Widow Von'Du, though. To compare Widow to somebody else would be foolish- she was incomparable, a standalone figure in the world of journalism, the Nelson’s Column of interviewers. To be interviewed by her was a bit like being asked for an audience with the queen. 

“Right, we need to do a lot of things very quickly. Vanessa, you need to phone for the car to Broadcasting House. Brooke, locate some makeup and spruce this bitch up a bit, okay? Jan, you’re gonna go with Jackie to the interview, start grabbing any notes you can get your hands on, anything relevant. Scarlet! Yvie! Jaida! I want you ladies to start phoning anyone and everyone you know, I don’t care if it’s Raja Gemini or Ellen DeGeneres’ cat. Get some fucking hype going around this, this is big, this is the splash we want to be making! Oh, and Adore!” Bianca finished, looking Adore dead in the eye and consequently making her look as if she’d wet her pants. 

“Yes, Bianca?” she asked, terrified. 

“…get me a fuckin’ Fanta!”

***

The tension and excitement were palpable in the air as Brooke, Vanessa, Bianca and the entire comms team all sat huddled around the huge LCD TV in the corner of the offices. Brooke’s stomach felt as if it was an atrium full of butterflies. If Jackie pulled this off, this would be amazing for her career. If she crashed and burned, she may as well just resign now. 

“What time’s it?” asked Vanessa, her voice anxious. 

“Five fifty-nine,” said Scarlet, looking up at Vanessa from her space on the floor beside the sofa. “Do you want me to do a countdown?”

“What is this, a fucking space exploration? I just want us all to sit and look at the fucking TV and shut up until Jackie’s home and dry, is that too much to ask?” Bianca cut in, clearly unimpressed by how chilled out Scarlet was. Put out, Scarlet instead cuddled close to Yvie and rested her head on her shoulder. 

For a moment Brooke was jealous of them both, jealous of what they had. She sometimes wanted someone to curl up to if she was tired and someone to go home with at the end of the day because despite how much she tried to argue otherwise, she did fleetingly get lonely. Her studio flat often seemed like a giant hen coop and perhaps it was the tiny enclosed space that worsened the feeling, but often it was hard pretending she was such a stone-cold bitch all of the time. It was hard working all day with someone like Vanessa and knowing that she was so beautiful and kind and intelligent and such a ray of sunshine and the complete opposite of her, and that she could be snapped up at any moment by any fucking ridiculous guy that wanted her and that shouldn’t bother her, _fuck_ , why did it bother her?

Brooke was wrenched out of her increasingly spiralling thought process by Adore hitting her shoulder repeatedly. In a daze, Brooke’s eyes focussed on the TV screen where the all too familiar “pips” of the BBC news at six began to play. Everyone seemed to hold their breath, even Bianca. 

_Dun-dun._ “Desperate for shelter- as the refugee crisis worsens, the BBC asks how much longer is the Prime Minister going to ignore it?”

 _Dun-dun._ “Could house prices be getting worse instead of better? Chi-Chi Devayne finds out if you should be selling up or staying put.”

 _Dun-dun._ Brooke sat bolt upright in her seat as a huge, blown-up screengrab of the Daily Mail article filled the screen, backed with the recording of Jackie’s interview in which she walked out. “And, is Britain’s treatment of women only going backwards? In the wake of her interview with The Daily Mail, Minister for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship Jackie Cox talks to Widow Von'Du about why this should serve as a wake-up call to journalists across the country.”

As the intro began to play and Widow was revealed sitting in front of her desk, Brooke still wasn’t able to relax. Jackie probably wouldn’t be on for another fifteen minutes but that wasn’t going to stop her worrying. Looking up at Bianca she saw that she was looking at her phone.

“Bianca. Any word from Jan?”

Snapping her head up from the screen, Bianca gave some semblance of a reassuring glance. “Just got a text from her. She says that Jackie’s raring to go, already met Widow and they got on like a house on fire. She says it’s very unlikely that we have anything to worry about.”

“Great, so am I good to go home now?” Nina asked, lazily lifting her head up from the huge cushions of the sofa. Bianca only had to fix her with a withering glance and her head was immediately back down again. 

Turning her head around from the item on the TV, Jaida suddenly spoke up. “So, why hasn’t the PM actually spoken out about the refugee crisis anyway?”

Seemingly glad for a distraction, Bianca sighed. “It’s not without me trying. I’ve practically been on my hands and knees begging to get him to say something, anything, I don’t know. Even a whisper that sounds something vaguely like “refugees” but could actually just have been him saying “cheese” would be better than nothing. At least we could turn that into a fucking soundbite.”

“Surely he can’t stay silent forever?” Yvie snorted, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“Well, until he does speak I’m going to have to use all these fucking Ministers as sock puppets for the things I want him to say. That’s why I’m hoping this interview is going to go well, so that when Jackie is finished she’s going to be so well-loved by the public that they’ll hang off her every word. Hopefully by the time this interview ends, the PM might as well just be fucking redundant.”

“Shh! Guys!” Vanessa hissed, flapping one hand excitedly at the TV screen and holding on tightly to Brooke’s arm with the other. 

Fuck, why did she need to do that?

“…joined by secretary of state for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship, Jackie Cox. Miss Cox, welcome,” Widow smiled at her, her face genuine and warm and making Brooke want to breathe a sigh of relief. 

“Hi Widow, it’s good to be here,” Jackie smiled back. She seemed at ease and pretty relaxed. Jan clearly hadn’t been bullshitting them.

“So, obviously today you’ve been subject to a lot of scrutiny, certainly online. Could you perhaps explain what happened to our viewers who may not know what it was that occurred?”

“Of course,” Jackie nodded, leaning forward a little in her seat. “I was basically given an interview by a journalist at The Daily Mail, which I thought would be covering my career and my policies and short term and long term goals- you know, things like that.”

Widow nodded sagely from her chair. 

“It turned out- I didn’t know this at the time- but it turned out that the story was for the section of the website targeted at women. What basically happened was the journalist asking me questions that I didn’t think were in any way relevant to my status as a politician, as a secretary of state, as a Minister.”

“What sort of questions were those?” Widow asked, obviously knowing full well.

“Things such as what I kept in my handbag, if I was jealous of any other women in Westminster, if I had a boyfriend...that sort of thing,” Jackie explained, laughing a little humourlessly. Widow smiled.

“Now obviously we’re laughing but it’s an incredibly prevalent issue in the media at the moment- the underlying, often subtle sexism in the media directed to female politicians,” Widow frowned, Jackie animatedly sitting up in her chair and beginning to speak before Widow had even asked her a question.

“Well absolutely, and often it’s very blatant too! For example, the sort of language The Sun used when they wrote about Nina Flowers after it emerged that she wouldn’t stand in the by-election as she had suffered a miscarriage. Also a lot of the opposition’s leadership contest was shambolic in that sense as well. There were three women in the running so obviously every paper referred to it as a catfight, in fact I think The Star photoshopped the heads of all three candidates onto cats?” Jackie ranted, Widow just letting her speak and nodding repeatedly throughout. “Oh and lest we forget that infamous line from Nicky Doll; that Manila Luzon shouldn’t be the next leader of the opposition because she dresses like a blind ape throwing clothes around in a Primark. It’s really quite disheartening, Widow.”

“Absolutely, and all very relevant and indeed current examples you gave there,” Widow agreed enthusiastically. “So what sort of effect does this then have on women in politics- in fact, let me revise that. What sort of effect does this then have on women in general?”

Jackie paused to think over the question. “Well, the main issue I have is how this will affect kids. The way that boys will think it’s okay to talk about girls, the way that girls will think it’s okay to talk about each other. I mean, that entire opposition leadership contest was a chance to show the country the finest example of intelligent, strong women, and to see it reduced to a mud-slinging contest over who had the best hair and makeup was really quite insulting. It might put off women who want to enter politics if they think they run the risk of being talked about by both the media and other politicians alike in such a disparaging manner which has nothing to do with their policies at all.”

Widow nodded understandingly before asking the next question. “So going forward then- what would you personally like to see done to tackle this sort of behaviour from the media?”

“Well, I’d like a great big hamper and an apology from the Daily Mail,” Jackie joked, earning a genuine laugh from Widow. “No, in all seriousness, I’d just like them to think about what language they use. Today for example, the wording of that headline was just…it actually did leave me lost for words because it was blatant homophobia used in plain view of the public. A lot of the problem with the way things are reported is the language used to do so, so just that little bit more scrutiny can go a long way. This isn’t even just an issue exclusive to homophobia and sexism, often there’s so much language that’s shockingly racist or just plain bigoted too. Another thing I think everyone in politics should do is call media outlets out about things like this. I’m not saying women from opposing parties suddenly have to be the best of friends but if you notice someone else getting spoken about in such a way that’s degrading to women, even just fire off a simple tweet about it. Stuff like that gets noticed and if we all act together, it’ll eventually combat this kind of reporting in the media.”

Widow smiled and gave a sort of conclusive nod. “Jackie Cox- thank you.”

Vanessa almost leapt out of her chair with excitement. “Guys! That went so well! That couldn’t have gone any better at all! Right, Bianca?”

“She was certainly very eloquent. And she managed to smear the opposition without even noticing, I think. A win on both counts in my book,” Bianca gave a rare genuine smile, now immediately on her phone. Looking up, she nodded to everyone. “Right, my work here is done and so, I guess, is yours. You can all fuck off home if you like.”

Shrugging, Bianca turned around and made her way out of the department. Saying a quick goodbye Nina, Adore and Jaida all left to pack up their things too, leaving Scarlet, Yvie, Vanessa and Brooke all huddled around the TV. For a moment they were all silent, too tired or relieved to even speak. After a few seconds, Yvie broke the silence. 

“Right. Pub?”

*** 

The bar was dimly lit, hues of red from the filtered lights giving a small amount of illumination to the corner that the girls had curled up in. Scarlet and Yvie were on the sofa against the wall, Yvie’s arm slung around her girlfriend’s skinny frame. Scarlet kept stifling yawns, indicating that she was flagging after their stressful day. Vanessa was their polar opposite, re-telling the story of Jackie’s interview with Shangela animatedly and frantically waving her arms. Jan had joined them and she was sat on the other sofa beside Brooke, smiling with amusement at Vanessa’s tipsy story-telling. Silky sounded as if her lungs were about to give out from laughter, her vodka cranberry swaying dangerously in her grip.

Silky was actually alright, Brooke mused. She was loud and crazy and talked more than she listened but as a mutual friend on a night out she wasn’t horrible. She’d greeted Brooke warmly enough, the two only having spoken briefly before tonight. Maybe Vanessa had been right. Silky just seemed like a standard working girl just trying to make it through to the weekend, who incidentally seemed pretty comfortable bitching about her boss and her other colleagues. 

As Vanessa finished off her story, Silky took a long sip of her drink and leant back in her chair. “Good for Jackie, bitch! The Daily Mail needs taking down a peg or two anyway, it’s the fuckin’ worst. Between us girls, though? I would look out for your boss. Nicky is _shook_. She was not happy with Jackie’s lil’ dig at her in that interview and I feel like there might be some kinda storm brewing.”

Brooke and Vanessa shared a brief, concerned glance. Turning to Jan, Brooke noticed that she looked fearful and had reached out to grab Silky’s arm. 

“Wait, what’s she planning?” Jan asked, clearly nervous. Silky simply raised her eyebrows, picking up her whiskey and swirling it around in her hand.

“Well hell, girl! I’d be damned if I know, I’m a civil servant! Do you think they tell me anything? Do they tell _you_ anything?” she turned to Yvie and Scarlet, questioning her ruling party counterparts. Yvie let out a derisive laugh as an answer while Scarlet gave a sleepy shake of her head, clearly a hair’s breadth away from sleep or death (Brooke couldn’t tell which). Satisfied with their answer, Silky simply cast a hand to Brooke’s two colleagues and held it there, clearly satisfied at having made her point. 

“If you hear anything though, Silk,” Vanessa insisted, knitting her brows together. Her friend simply cut her off before she could finish.

“Of course I’ll let you know. I am, after all, the ruling party’s unofficial corporate spy. Y’all can thank me later.”

Yvie and Scarlet clapped appreciatively and Silky gave a little bow. Brooke was still troubled by what she had told them, though. If the opposition did have a plan things probably weren’t looking good for the week ahead, least of all if Bob was behind it. Even if she was known as “the less savage Bianca”, Bob was cunning and sly and could wreak some severe havoc across the party. Having been the party’s spin doctor for some years now, she knew every trick in the book and paired with Nicky, her scheming advisors, and Asia (Nina’s opposite number), there certainly could be some amount of shitstorm brewing. 

Some form of compere had taken to the “stage” beside the bar (a single dim halogen light, a microphone and one speaker) and was announcing the start of an open mic night. Silky’s face lit up excitedly as she leapt up from her chair, only to be immediately shoved back down again by Yvie. 

“For the millionth time, you’re not doing an acoustic Whitney Houston greatest hits medley,” she said with a long-suffering shake of her head. A scraggy sort of guy with a long beard took to the spotlight. 

“My name is Alex, and this one is called Wonderwall.”

Brooke’s entire table groaned. 

“Fuck me senseless. I’m going for a cigarette,” Yvie announced, hurriedly escaping the bar. 

“I’ll join you,” Brooke shrugged, the prospect of social smoking preferable to sitting through the inevitable dirge that was to come. 

Bursting the door open and gasping a little as the cold air hit her bare arms, Brooke leant against the cold brick wall and sighed deeply. Lighting up, Yvie looked at her with a funny sort of smile. 

“What?” Brooke asked.

“Nothing. Just wondering when you’re planning on telling Vanessa about that huge teen girl crush you have on her.”

Brooke’s insides dropped about 50 metres to the ground. Was it really that obvious? No- no, it couldn’t be obvious, because her so-called crush didn’t exist. What gave Yvie the right? She was jumping to stupid conclusions and just because she and Scarlet were happy together didn’t mean that love was all around them like some fucking Wet, Wet, Wet song. Keeping her face blank, Brooke simply looked Yvie in the eyes. 

“The crush that doesn’t exist? Yeah I’m telling her tomorrow, we’ve got an appointment at 4.”

“Brooke, come on. You think I don’t recognise that behaviour? You look at her like you want to protect her, whenever she makes a joke you’re the first to laugh. You care about her more than anyone else, you’re more patient with her than you are with any of us. Whenever anything goes down at work, you’re the first to make sure she’s okay. Just admit it. You’ll feel better.”

“Yvie, I know it might be hard for you to get your head round and I know you can barely see because of the fucking hearts blocking the way of your pupils...but I’m not interested in Vanessa,” Brooke scowled. For a second she regretted it. Yvie was clearly only trying to help, but what exactly was she going to do? Brooke wasn’t about to ruin things with Vanessa or ruin the atmosphere in the workplace by admitting that...admitting what? There was nothing to admit. 

Smirking, Yvie stubbed out her cigarette on the wall and dropped it to the ground. “Alright, well. Keep telling yourself that. See how far it gets you.”

As she walked back inside, Brooke instead tipped her head back against the cold, damp bricks and exhaled shakily. She was doing fine on her own, she didn’t need anyone, but the more Brooke thought about it the more she considered the differences between need and want. Every thought she had seemed to be followed up by Yvie’s voice, now warped and mocking in her head. _Keep telling yourself that._ Tearing a hand through her hair Brooke looked up to the dark sky, feeling momentarily like she wanted to pray. 

Instead, she turned and walked back inside the bar. 

Returning to her seat, she found the girls all laughing uproariously at something Silky had said. She was still talking, all excited and hyped up, and even though she commanded the attention of everyone at the table Brooke still found her eyes being drawn to Vanessa, Yvie’s words playing in her mind. She was smiling at Silky; the glitter dusted onto her cheekbones, the shine of her hair, and the gloss on her lips catching the light. She looked happy and carefree and gorgeous. Just then, Vanessa’s gaze was on her, and Brooke was caught having been looking at her first. Snapping her gaze to the floor, Brooke felt around the table for her vodka and coke and gripped it with one white-knuckled hand. Feeling her heart race inside her chest and wiping the sweat away from one hand on her leggings, two things became clearer to Brooke than ever before.

Yvie was right, and she was completely and utterly fucked. 


	3. Opposition Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Shadow Minister Nicky Doll and her advisors arrive at DoSac for an informal, pre-election briefing, Jan tries to cope with the stress of seeing her old colleagues again. There’s more at stake, though, when Jackie reveals a secret that cannot get out.

Casting her eyes over the meeting room, Brooke attempted to focus on what Jackie was actually saying. She was trying her hardest, she really was, but it was just that Vanessa was wearing the red jumper today, the really soft one that made her look more cuddly and adorable than normal. 

Brooke had a crush on Vanessa. She’d accepted that now. The way to deal with it was just to never act upon it, talk about it, or to admit it to anyone outside of her own head. She’d spent so long cultivating the perfect stone-cold, heartless bitch image and she wasn’t exactly going to do anything to taint that now. The most important thing she had to remember was that she didn’t need anyone- she had no desire to be in a relationship, to be tied down and have to answer to someone else all the time. She had a perfectly good bullet to get her off and if she felt like it she could always go and pick up someone random from a bar. There was always that irritating aspect when the afterglow had faded, though, if whoever she’d used for the night wanted to stay over, or heaven forbid see her again. Things were just better as they were, Brooke concluded. She couldn’t get attached, or hurt, or fall in love this way. If there was one thing she wasn’t, it was vulnerable. Getting into a relationship with someone put you in the weakest position you could possibly get.

She would know, after all.

Still, she was allowed to dream about it; an ideal world in which love worked out the way it did in books and movies, one huge cliché where Brooke and Vanessa were happy together and lived in perfect domesticity, had the best sex of their lives and went on adorable dates. It was simplistic and shallow and completely unrealistic, but perhaps that was all it was meant to be. 

Gazing at Vanessa again, she was surprised to see her eyes already on her. She was even more surprised when she looked around the room and saw that everyone else was staring at her as well. 

“Brooke Lynn?” Jackie asked, staring at her expectantly. She stood in front of a huge whiteboard with marker pen scribbled all over it- generic buzzwords such as “connectivity”, “inclusivity” and “diversity” sprang out to her, but nothing really indicated what Jackie could have previously been talking about. 

“Um. The fiscal year?” Brooke guessed blankly. Jan laughed from across the table, throwing her head back and letting her blonde hair cascade down the back of the chair. Jackie didn’t find it as funny. 

“Christ, Brooke, this policy is only going to work if everyone pays attention and has some form of input other than just staring at me with glassy eyes like they’ve been taxidermied!” she sighed, sitting her pen down on the table and sliding into an empty chair. Brooke felt a pang of guilt- Jackie had been doing well in the two weeks that had followed her Von’Du interview and had received heaps of public support and attention. The perfect time, Bianca had insisted, to get some new ideas out there and into parliament. 

“Sorry. Remind me of the premise?” 

Irritated, Jackie rolled her eyes before Vanessa cut in with a sweet smile. “Issa scheme to get the UK to house more refugees and get ‘em into work therefore boosting the economy, diversifyin’ the nation and basically makin’ us look like good guys to the rest of Europe.”

Brooke shot her a grateful smile across the table, trying her best not to blush.

“Thank God someone’s been listening,” Jackie smirked. “We’re basically just trying to come up with a name for it. Or a tagline or something.”

Brooke pressed her pen to her lips, thinking for a second. Nina suddenly piped up from beside her. 

“What about… _Don’t be bigoted. Be uninhibited,_ ” she said, her suggestion met with utter silence from the rest of the group. 

“Well that was nice, Nina, but how about something a bit less…” Jackie thought for a second, trying to find the correct word. 

“Shit?” Brooke shrugged, Jan once again letting out a peal of laughter. Vanessa was clearly trying to conceal her giggles from the other side of the huge table, while both Nina and Jackie looked unimpressed. 

“Do you have any better suggestions?”

“No, and I’m not going to pretend like I do! I’m not going to just yell out any old crap like I’ve got shit idea Tourette’s,” Brooke shrugged, Jan now bent over in her chair from laughter and Vanessa now audibly giggling. Brooke couldn’t tell, but she could have sworn Jackie let out the tiniest snort of a laugh before regaining composure. 

“Ladies, please, this is important! This is a good damn idea, if I’m allowed to blow my own trumpet, and we’ve got to get it out there sooner rather than later,” she insisted. A loud, harsh vibration from Nina’s phone startled them all. 

“Bianca’s here,” she announced, trying to keep her tone bright. Before the girls even had time to react to the news, Bianca had appeared in the room in a smart, tailored black and white suit. 

“Good morning to you all, shit Spice Girls impersonation act,” she smiled cheerfully. 

“Mornin’, Bianca,” Vanessa greeted her.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Jackie quipped dryly, lounging back in her seat.

“Two things from me,” Bianca began, ignoring the Minister’s sarcasm. “The shadow minister’s visit, today at 11. They’re going to be talking to Nina and the rest of those brain-dead, civil-service puppets out there about what’s going to happen if they take office. Nina, your job is to basically communicate to them that they’ll be taking it out of my cold, dead hands.”

“Fuck, that’s today?!” Vanessa exclaimed somewhat involuntarily, earning her a steely glare from Bianca which in turn made Vanessa look as if she was seconds away from death. Reaching into her pocket and retrieving her phone, Brooke fired off a quick text to Vanessa under the table. 

_B: It’s okay. Snakes only eat once every few weeks x_

As Bianca briefed Nina, Brooke watched as Vanessa looked down into her lap and smiled, a light blush colouring her cheeks very slightly, although that could have just been the light of the room. Satisfied that she’d made Vanessa feel better, she tuned back in to what Bianca was saying. 

“…you tell them nothing. Except where the toilets are, but you lie about that.”

“So who’s actually accompanying Nicky today? I’ve heard nothing and I want to make sure I’m relatively prepared for whoever enters my department,” Jackie folded her arms across her chest, already defensive. 

“You already know about Nicky. Privately educated daddy’s girl and massively out of touch with the electorate. Probably a lizard wearing a human skin suit, I’ve never particularly wanted to get close enough to her to check if that theory’s true,” Bianca shrugged. “The other two coming with her are going to be her advisors, Gigi and Crystal.”

“Oh no,” Jan suddenly exclaimed from her chair. Her face had gone incredibly ashen, her eyes wide and fearful. Suddenly Brooke was acutely aware that she no longer had only Vanessa to worry about. If Jan’s old colleagues and ex-friends bumped into her it wouldn’t be particularly pleasant, and Jan would no doubt be incredibly shaken. Crossing the floor was like a betrayal, pledging loyalty to one party after being aligned with another was treacherous, and so it was likely that Gigi, Crystal and Nicky still wanted Jan’s head on a stick. 

“Oh yes. Gigi Goode, bit of a newborn as far as politics is concerned but she’s got impressive credentials. Graduated from Oxford University with a first class degree and a PhD in Politics and Business. Won the World Universities Debating Championships five consecutive times. She’s confident, clever, and has zero scruples. Knows every loophole in the world of politics,” Bianca reeled off. Jackie raised her eyebrows, clearly impressed. 

“She sounds interesting.”

“Don’t even make contact with her, she’ll probably have you telling her the fucking nuke codes and all the department’s discrepancies within the first 30 seconds of meeting her. Crystal Harness is a different story,” Bianca frowned. “Not too good when it comes to actual political knowledge. Nina, you and her would get along. She’s a baby too, really, not been in the game long. Graduated from Oxford Brookes. Second class degree in Psychology and Sociology. Don’t think for a second that this is a reason to underestimate her. She is cunning and has intellect and knows everything about everyone, don’t let her see you break a sweat.”

Jackie looked momentarily terrified. “I didn’t realise Nicky had some kind of metahuman task force working for her.”

“They’re not that bad,” Brooke sighed, tipping her head back in her chair. “If you talk to Nicky entirely in cockney rhyming slang, she’ll just combust. Gigi is fine if you give her a fake smile or two. Crystal is basically simple. You’ve got nothing to worry about, Jackie.”

Feeling the mood in the room change, Brooke turned around in her wheely chair and was met with Bianca’s icy stare. 

“What part of ‘don’t underestimate these people’ do you not understand? What, you think they’re here for a jolly little chat with Nina about worker’s rights and office hours? They’re here to get intel, and I want you all to be more airtight than some middle-aged white woman’s Tupperware. And no, that’s not a euphemism.”

Brooke watched as Vanessa wrinkled up her nose in distaste. She had such a cute little nose, and Brooke found herself imagining how perfect it would be to just kiss it gently before they both drifted off to sleep together in a little house that they shared. Frowning involuntarily, Brooke chased those particular thoughts out of her head. They were way too intense, too weird and commitment-y for her friend she had a stupid crush on. Remembering what Bianca had said earlier, she turned and faced her. 

“What was the other thing? You said you had two things to tell us.”

“I’m getting there! Right, Jackie, I’ve got you a good photo op this evening. Some new charging points for electric car owners, it’s going to be the biggest one in the UK and a big step for climate change, yadda yadda yadda. We’re going to get you driving in a fucking Prius or something, charging it up and then driving out again. Pretty simple, but effective- what? What is it?”

Every head in the room turned to face Jackie, who looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Her hands were gripping the edge of the table, her knuckles white. She’d turned pale, her face ashen, and she seemed worried. 

“Driving? No, I can’t drive, there’s no way,” she babbled, her usually calm and composed exterior completely destroyed.

“Jackie?” Jan prompted quietly, clearly concerned. Brooke shared a brief look of confusion with Vanessa. It was clear nobody had the faintest idea what was going on. 

“I mean, you can drive. We have your drivers’ license, you sent in a photocopy as proof of identification when you received Darienne’s job. I don’t really see the issue here?” Bianca curled her top lip, completely unfazed by Jackie’s behaviour. 

“Bianca, you don’t understand…I’ve not driven in ages, I…do you not-”

“Do I not what?” Bianca cut in, her irritation mounting by the second. “Look, I don’t really have time to stand here and argue the toss. This is part of your job. You’re doing the goddamn photo op. Christ, this was the girl who two weeks ago was desperate to get on prime time television. Now you’re shitting yourself at the thought of driving a bloody battery operated car. Get it done. 6 o’clock tonight. See you all later.” 

As Bianca click-clacked out of the department, the mood in the room was still very tense. Almost frozen, Brooke thought, the tiny hairs on her arms standing up from goosebumps. Jan was the first to speak. 

“Jackie, are you okay?” she almost whispered, her voice both deafening and quiet in the silent room. There were a few seconds (minutes?) where there was no response at all, in fact Brooke was almost convinced that nobody even breathed. Finally, Jackie spoke. 

“Yep. All good. So, um, if you ladies can continue thinking up some form of line or title we can use or something while you’re finishing off that immigration data, and Nina if you can just forward me the protocol for Nicky’s visit again so I can read over it, then that would be great,” she said, her body almost frozen in place and her face wearing a fake smile.

Deciding not to push it any further, Brooke simply nodded and walked back to her desk. It wasn’t long before Vanessa was following behind, rolling her own wheely chair along to sit beside her. 

“What d’you think all that was about?” she whispered, leaning her elbows on Brooke’s desk expectantly. Brooke couldn’t help but stifle a laugh- Vanessa could be such a gossip and it was one of the things that was oddly endearing about her. Trying not to be too taken in by her perfume and parted lips, Brooke instead threw up her defences again and rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know, ‘Ness. To be honest, it’s not my place to ask. It’s not yours either,” she chastised softly, hitting Vanessa gently on the nose with her pen. Wrinkling her nose and pulling away, Vanessa shrugged.

“You’re right, I know. Still, she was kinda rattled. Hope she’s okay,” Vanessa frowned, nibbling on her bottom lip. 

“She’ll be fine. Honestly. Just go and do your damn job.”

“Hmm. Winding you up’s more fun, baby, but I’ll do what I’m told,” Vanessa winked at her, shooting back off to her desk in her chair.

Feeling her heart speed up, Brooke fleetingly wondered if maybe the feelings she had for Vanessa weren’t entirely one-sided. That was flirting, right? Brooke wasn’t reading too much into it? Or maybe she was. Reality brought her back down to earth with a bump, telling her what a ridiculous thought that was. Vanessa saw Brooke as a friend and a co-worker, and that was where her feelings ended. Brooke couldn’t let herself get carried away or distracted with the idea that Vanessa would ever treat her as anything more than what they already were.

Letting out a huge exhale of breath, Brooke opened up the immigration spreadsheet and was about to start working when there was a thud of two elbows on the empty space to her left. Turning slowly in an attempt to conceal her flinching, she was met with Yvie; head in her hands, black dreads cascading over her shoulders and a huge, smug grin on her face.

“Don’t even say a word,” Brooke warned her, clearly too late as Yvie began sniggering a laugh behind her hands. 

“I wasn’t actually here to gloat, but now you mention it…” Yvie joked, lolling lazily against Brooke’s desk. “So you’ve not admitted anything to anyone else. In fact, you’re probably maintaining the fact that there’s nothing to admit. But you’ve definitely admitted something to _yourself,_ because I think your face is so red that you could go stand at a street corner and act as a traffic light.” 

“If you keep talking, I’m going to staple your mouth shut,” Brooke glared, grabbing the stapler on her desk for emphasis. It didn’t seem to intimidate Yvie at all, who was still grinning maniacally and completely unfazed.

“Hey, like I said! Not here to gloat at all. I’m actually not here to talk about your deep feelings for your coworker in any way. Just thought you might like to know that Akeria texted me this a couple minutes ago.”

With that, Yvie produced her phone and held it out to Brooke so that she could read the screen. 

_A: ahahaha yeah. Big Silk with the fuckin bodyshots man!! Don’t actually know how she made it in today. Also, 100% confirmed Nicky’s looking for stuff to take Jackie down with bc she’s still pissed about that dig in the Von’Du interview. watch ur back xo_

Attempting to ignore whatever conversation that had been going on before, Brooke focussed on the important information. She wished she could say she was surprised by the shadow minister’s plan but in all honesty, she’d highly expected it. Sighing, Brooke handed Yvie her phone back.

“I mean, I’m not too worried. What can she possibly dig up? Jackie will’ve been vetted by Bianca already,” she shrugged, clicking on a single cell of the spreadsheet half-heartedly.

“She got pizza delivered to the office last week?” 

“That’s not even- Yvie. Come on,” Brooke raised one eyebrow in disbelief. “The papers would be hard pressed to conjure up a paragraph on that. Jackie will be fine.”

Appearing to be satisfied, Yvie pushed herself off the desk and made to return to her seat, but not before turning back to Brooke with the same smug look on her face as before. 

“You know, I don’t think anyone in the office could’ve missed that wink Vanjie gave you just there. Whatever you’re feeling, I don’t think it’s as one-sided as you think,” she smirked, making sure to keep her voice low. Unsure of what to reply, Brooke simply narrowed her eyes, picked up her stapler and clicked it twice in warning. Chuckling, Yvie sauntered back to her desk.

Trying not to even entertain the thought that Vanessa could like her back, Brooke continued with her work. All of the numbers suddenly seemed scrambled and jumbled up, making no sense to her whatsoever. Feeling as if she was about to scream with frustration she made to ask Jan for advice until she noticed her desk was empty. Come to think of it, Jan hadn’t actually left the meeting room with her and Vanessa. Bullshit if she was getting away with doing nothing while Brooke worked on this entire set of figures by herself. Getting up and smoothing her skirt down she made her way to the meeting room only to find it empty. Puzzled, she began to walk slightly aimlessly down the corridor, her curiosity piqued at the disappearance of both Jan and Jackie. It was unlike Jan to just wander off without telling either Brooke or Vanessa where she was going. 

Reaching the photocopier and a dead end with no Jan in sight, Brooke was about to give up and ask Nina for help instead when she heard two sets of muffled voices coming from the stationery cupboard. 

_“I’m just panicking, I know. But I feel like I have good reason to. I mean, it’s going to be absolute carnage if this gets out.”_

_“It won’t, don’t worry. I still can’t believe Bianca missed that when she vetted you. But please don’t panic, it’ll all be fine! I’ll speak to Nina and I’ll get her to quietly cancel it.”_

Jackie and Jan. What the hell were they in the stationery cupboard for, and most importantly, what were they talking about? Whatever it was, it sounded serious. If it was serious business, Brooke deserved to know. Making to burst open the door in a show of outrage, she stopped herself when Jackie’s voice spoke again.

_“I just feel like such a failure. I should’ve known it would get out, I should’ve said something-”_

_“Hey! You are not a failure,”_ Jan’s voice cut in urgently. There was an odd sort of pause in which Brooke wasn’t quite sure what was happening. _“You’re a good person, Jackie, and a kick-ass politician. You’re the best thing to happen to this department since I arrived, even if I do say so myself.”_

Soft laughter, then Jan’s voice again. _“You’re incredible. Don’t ever doubt that.”_

Another pause. Brooke couldn’t quite bring herself to move, somehow feeling as if she shouldn’t be hearing this at all. Composing herself, she rested her hand on the door handle.

_“Jan I…this might seem inappropriate, but-”_

“Okay, what the hell is going on in here?” Brooke demanded as she flung open the door and revealed herself. Both girls seemed to jump back a bit, Jackie looking to the floor awkwardly and rubbing the back of her neck, Jan’s mouth forming a perfect circle as her jaw dropped in shock. They had both gone bright red, which Brooke thought was odd for two colleagues having a professional conversation.

“Jesus, Brooke, you scared the crap out of me,” Jackie breathed out raggedly, her voice spooked but holding an underlying note of irritation. 

“I don’t care, you haven’t answered my question. What were you talking about? What’s going to be carnage?” Brooke replied, keeping her glare cold. Jackie kept her eyes trained on the floor, not seeming to want to look up anytime soon. Jan still hadn’t spoken. 

“Close the door,” Jackie said finally, sounding a little shaken. Feeling the wind slightly knocked out of her sails, Brooke did as she was told and watched as Jackie steadied herself on the shelf and sat on an unopened box.

“Um. Do you remember I kind of went off grid after uni? A lot of people were asking after me and couldn’t really find me.”

With a pang of guilt, Brooke’s first reaction was that she hadn’t really cared. She’d been glad to see the back of Jackie at the time, if she was honest. Times had changed, though, so Brooke simply nodded instead. Jackie wrung her hands together, her face completely racked with nerves. 

“I wasn’t in a good place. My mental health spiralled out of control pretty dramatically once I graduated, I struggled to find a job for a while and when I did, I got way too into it. I would work myself into a frenzy, I’d do consecutive days on two hours of sleep...at one point I was averaging a panic attack per day. I didn’t really, um. I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about things. I tried going to therapy but it just didn’t help. I don’t know...it felt like I was making progress just being able to know that I was visiting someone, I guess, but I wasn’t really. Anyway, you don’t need to know my sob story,” Jackie frowned, shaking her head repeatedly. “To cut a long story short, I was driving into work one day, trying to do twenty things at once as usual. It was idiotic, but I was on the motorway and a text came through from my boss and wanting to seem like I was organised and in control, I tried to type and drive at the same time...the motorway was quiet, there was nobody around me...fuck, sorry-”

As Jackie’s voice broke slightly, Jan crossed over to where she sat and rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. 

“I crashed into the barricade in the central reservation doing fifty miles an hour. God knows how I’m still alive. The police obviously came along with the ambulance and the fire brigade and of course they wanted to know how it was that I managed to crash on a clear stretch of road with no other drivers around me. I’ve never been able to lie to save myself, so I just told them. I’d only passed my test the year before that, so they took my license away. That’s why I can’t do the PR thing. It’s illegal for me to drive. I got a fake license purely so I could take this job.” 

Leaning against the door, Brooke felt she wanted to sit down too. This was so much to deal with. She couldn’t style herself out as not caring about this, because she actually felt sick to her stomach with guilt. She couldn’t believe Jackie had coped- or not coped- completely on her own through all this horrible mess. Even though there was no way she could have known, Brooke just wished she could’ve done something differently. She desperately hoped Jackie was better now. 

“Jackie, I’m so sorry.”

“No, no, don’t be sorry. This isn’t about me being...enormously god damn mental in the head, or whatever,” she snorted a derisive laugh. “I’m more worried about how we’re going to placate Bianca. Jan said she’d talk to Nina and get her to cancel the shoot but Bianca’s going to ask questions.”

“Well it’s not your fault she didn’t vet you properly,” Brooke shrugged, how Bianca would feel the absolute last thing on her mind right now. “So she can just deal with it. How Bianca feels doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re okay.”

Jackie looked up at her, her face grateful but slightly taken aback at this raw show of compassion. Truthfully, Brooke was also slightly shocked at how kind she was being towards her. She was grateful for the shout that came from the hall suddenly. 

“Brooke? Guys? You in there?” Vanessa asked, as she opened the door and stepped inside the stationery cupboard that was ever-decreasing in space. Confused by the presence of her boss and the two other advisors, her perfect eyebrows became furrowed together. “There some meeting I didn't know about?”

“Yeah, in the stationery cupboard. It was really important, girl, did you not get the memo?” Jan laughed affectionately. Laughing briefly at her own ridiculous assumption, Vanessa then tentatively looked at everyone else again.

“So…why we all here?”

Brooke briefly looked at Jackie, then sighed. “Jackie can’t do the PR stunt because legally, she’s not allowed to drive. She got done for texting while driving years ago and her license got revoked.”

Vanessa’s mouth dropped open a little as if she was about to ask how, then shut again as she clearly decided against it. “Does Bianca know?”

Giving her an affectionate smile, Brooke raised her eyebrows at her. “V. Come on. Use your brain.”

“Fuck, ‘course not. I’m so not with it today. So what’s happenin’?”

“Jan’s telling Nina to cancel it and when Bianca finds out, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. What’s important here is Jackie,” Brooke said decisively. Shocked again at the vulnerability she was showing, she smoothed down her black pencil skirt and sniffed once, trying to ignore just how close Vanessa was in the tiny space. “So that’s settled. Can we all get out of this cupboard and do some damn work? I feel like I’m suffocating.”

Without speaking, the four girls filed out of the cupboard as if the conversation had never happened. Brooke’s head was still slightly spinning as she slumped back in her chair, the excel spreadsheet now more confusing than ever. She was still attempting to take in everything that Jackie had just told her. It was so much to process, and Brooke couldn’t shake the guilty feeling that was settling in the pit of her stomach, the feeling that maybe there was something she could have done to help all those years ago. Sighing, she cast her eyes to Jackie’s glass-fronted office where the Minister was now typing into her phone, her face failing to betray anything about the heartfelt conversation that had just taken place. Why the hell did Jackie have to confide in her like that? Life would be so much less stressful if everybody just kept their guard up like Brooke did. 

Still, she mused, everyone would probably be a whole lot more lonely. 

Suddenly, Brooke’s phone screen lit up with three messages at once- two from Jan, one from Vanessa.

_J: I would love to, that sounds amazing (: we could go for sushi?? Wardour Street has some really nice places! Xxx_

_J: whoops wasn’t meant for you lol sorry_

Brooke would probably have been about ten times more intrigued and curious about Jan’s text if she didn’t have a text from Vanessa awaiting her. 

_V: I don’t care what kind of front you try to put up, you’re kind and caring and a total sweetheart x_

Not even daring to look up and risk meeting Vanessa’s eyes, Brooke reached for a piece of paper on her desk and began to fan the blush that had just flooded her cheeks. Trying her best not to think about what Yvie had said earlier, she began to compose a reply.

_B: You’re a cutie. Don’t tell anyone I was nice to you though, being a bitch is kind of my brand x_

Risking a peek up over her monitor, Brooke watched as Vanessa picked up her phone and giggled, covering her mouth with one perfectly manicured hand.

God, it was going to be a long day.

***

They had arrived. 

Brooke felt like a bird of prey as she stood beside Jan and watched from above as Nicky and her two advisors were greeted by Nina in the lobby. Even from six floors up Brooke could tell that Nina was hating the fact that she had to be at the very least civil to the three opposition members. Narrowing her eyes, Brooke watched closer.

Nicky was using the tactic she employed every time she had a television interview; gushing about how happy she was to be here, playing the humble, meek elected representative of the people. She was wearing an immaculate navy pencil dress with what appeared to be a Tiffany heart around her neck, and her sleek blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a bun. Following dutifully behind her were two others. The first girl Brooke heard before she saw- a cry of excitement at being in the building had been the very thing that proclaimed the arrival of the opposition. She was still making an obscene amount of excitable noise which travelled up the floors of the lobby as if it was riding the elevator. Squawker- or Crystal, Brooke supposed she should call her- was equally well turned out. She gave off a clear professional vibe in her button-down shirt, blue skirt and little heeled boots, and her curly red hair was swept over one shoulder. 

“Gigi needs her roots done. See?” Brooke whispered to Jan, not taking her eyes off the three opposition members. Receiving no response, Brooke turned to look at her friend. Jan’s shoulders were tensed up as she trained her eyes on the member of the opposition in question. Her style was immaculate and she wore a pressed white shirt with huge sleeves and a pair of smart tailored black trousers with her high heels. Her long, blonde hair had been immaculately styled and blow-dried, and Brooke found herself wondering how or if she had the time to do that every day. Looking to Jan again she found her brow furrowed, biting at her long, painted nails. 

“Jan, come on. Don’t ruin your nails, you’re better than that,” Brooke scolded, grabbing gently at Jan’s wrist and pulling it away from her face. Jan finally turned to meet her eyes before looking quickly back down at the floor again. “Hey. Talk to me.”

Sighing, Jan leant against the balcony, watching as the opposition were led away to the lift. “Sorry. I know I’m not myself today. It’s just this is really, really freaking me out. It’s not like this is the first time I’ve seen these girls since I crossed the floor, but to have them here where I work? It’s just a lot. It sounds dramatic but like...it kind of feels violating, if that makes any sense?” 

Brooke nodded slowly. “I know you’re worried about it. But you’re being really brave about the whole thing. And hey, you kind of have an advantage, I guess! They’re on your territory, they’re not familiar or comfortable with anything here. Mainly because nothing’s engulfed by the flames of hell or costs over £10,000.”

Snorting a brief laugh, Jan’s face grew somewhat blank again. “I mean. Their tanks are on our lawn, though, they know we’re shook.”

Rolling her eyes, Brooke laughed derisively. “Jan. These private school bitches are not going to take power. You live in this country at the moment, do you really think the public are going to vote for people like Nicky?”

“Well, the public are idiots.”

Brooke gave a snort. “Jan, you can’t say the entire nation are idiots.”

“Yes I can, I’ve met them,” Jan deadpanned, signing off with a smile. Brooke relaxed against the balcony, comforted by the fact that Jan clearly felt a little better. 

“Listen. One single day. One day of smiling and nodding like a puppet and just taking whatever crap or snide comments or shade they throw at you. You’ve handled so much worse,” Brooke smiled reassuringly, resting both hands on Jan’s shoulders. Comforted, Jan made to turn back to the department when suddenly she whipped her head back round. 

“Brooke,” she murmured. “What if they find out about Jackie?”

“What, that she exists? I know it was a crushing disappointment to us all but they’ll get over it some day,” she deadpanned. Jan gave a colossal roll of her eyes.

“No, you bitch! The license thing,” Jan sighed in exasperation, raising her voice just a little.

Brooke paused for a moment. It was weird how protective Jan was of her boss. She was never like that with Darienne at all. Fair enough Jackie was far more competent but still, it wasn’t as if the two shared some deep personal connection or anything. Brooke thought about asking her about it, but instead decided that that probably wasn’t what Jan needed right at this very moment. 

“Who’s going to tell them? Me? You? Vanessa? Jackie herself? We’re the only ones that know. Come on, Jan, think,” Brooke tapped the side of Jan’s head once, punctuating her point. “It’s not going to get out.”

Smiling slightly, Jan seemed to compose herself and took one deep breath. As if something had occurred to her, she let out a laugh.

“God, what’s happening to you, Brooke? First you’re nice to Jackie for once and then you listen to me vent for ages. Your cracks are showing,” Jan smiled. Brooke attempted to style it out by shrugging, secretly a little unnerved that her recent empathy was being noticed. 

“Stop psychoanalysing me, psycho, and let’s get back to our desks.” 

No sooner had both girls turned the corner towards their office when they came face to face with the three members of the opposition coming out of the lift, Nina leading them. Jan immediately froze in place, seemingly unable to move. Brooke wanted to do something, anything to reassure her but before she could even look at Jan, Gigi’s cold grey eyes met her own. 

“Nicky,” she turned to her boss, her cheerful, light voice at odds with the stare she was giving Brooke. “You go on ahead with Nina. Crystal and I are just going to have a little catch-up with a couple of old friends we haven’t seen in a while.”

Brooke wasn’t easily intimidated and she swore that today would be no different. As Gigi and Crystal advanced towards them, she drew her shoulders back and tilted her head, not giving a single thing away on her face. She could feel Jan growing more and more timid beside her. Christ, if these girls were planning on giving her friend a hard time then they’d be leaving the department in an ambulance. 

“Brooke Lynn. Jan! So good to see you both,” Gigi began, her smile smug as she rested one nonchalant hand on her hip. “God, how long has it been? When was the last time we saw these two, Crystal?”

“Gee, Gigi, I don’t know! Did they not serve us at McDonalds when we went to get nuggets a couple days ago?” Crystal chimed in, flashing a quick, amused smile at her friend. Brooke muffled a derisive laugh as she shook her head. She couldn’t quite believe the schoolyard bullshit that these adult women were trying to start in her department. Still, if this was the game they were playing, then Brooke would play accordingly. 

“Clever, implying that we’re both in minimum wage retail sector jobs! Something which your party loves to shit on very often. I love it,” Brooke smiled sweetly, gently clapping her hands. Gigi gave a fake laugh.

“Ladies, relax! It’s just some classic cross-party fun, no harm meant by it. You know that, right, Jan?” she flashed her a false smile. Brooke watched as Jan, shoulders now so hunched she was practically concave, gave a meek nod in response. 

“You know, we really miss you, Jan,” Crystal nodded somberly, her voice high and sweet and almost-but-not-quite masking the fake sincerity behind her words. “Nicky’s always saying how open she’d be to having you back if you’d ever want to cross the floor...again! Gigi and I miss you too. We miss our friend.”

With that, Crystal reached a hand out and touched Jan’s arm gently. Flinching a little, Jan finally met her former colleague’s eyes and gave a weak smile. Brooke felt a flame of anger sting her veins as she watched the whole interaction. It was the same every time Jan ran into these two- they would start with the bitchy high school bullshit and Jan would be unable to ignore it, growing more and more quiet and subdued with every passing comment. Fuelled by her anger and dislike of behaviour of the two girls in front of her, Brooke snorted sardonically. 

“Friend? Spare me the bullshit, you’d stab yourself in the back if it meant you got ten more followers on Instagram. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to get back to work. You know, being in power? But this has been lovely,” Brooke flashed her bright white teeth in a smile, which Gigi returned equally as insincerely. “I haven’t had the conversational equivalent of hepatitis C in a long time.” 

“As always, Brooke, you’re a very funny girl. Quite the comedian,” Gigi gave a tight-lipped smile as she stepped to one side and cleared a path down the corridor for the two girls. Hooking her arm through Jan’s, Brooke began to leave and had taken roughly three steps when she yelled her retort over her shoulder. 

“I’ve got a lot of jokes, but none as good as your boss!”

Still fuelled from the frustration coursing through her veins, Brooke steered Jan the rest of the way down the hall and into the small kitchen like a demented steam train. It was only after she flicked the switch on the kettle so hard she thought she might have broken it when Jan spoke.

“I know they annoy you, babe, but don’t be too hard on them.”

“Don’t be too…Jan! They were standing there making you feel like a sack of shit, I wasn’t going to sit back and let them rip you to shreds! God, I can’t believe you’re defending them,” Brooke cried, grabbing two mugs and two teabags so hard she felt they might crumble apart in her hands. Silent for only a moment, Jan began playing with the edge of a tea towel, deep in thought.

“They were my friends once though. Who knows, maybe…maybe they were being serious. Maybe they do want to be friends again.”

As the kettle reached boiling point, Brooke took one deep, calming breath and began pouring them cups of tea. Part of her hated the way that she’d been conditioned into going straight to the kettle when something was angering or upsetting either her or her friends, as if a ridiculous hot drink was going to help make things any better. Vodka, now that would go some way to really help the situation. If Brooke and Jan shared a 75cl bottle, they’d be able to get so wasted that those idiots from the opposition wouldn’t bother them anymore. The bottle would also be ideal for smashing over Gigi’s smug face. Too bad it was too early for alcohol, Brooke mused, as she handed the smaller girl a steaming hot mug of tea. As Jan gave a grateful smile and began to sip, Brooke found herself wishing she could knock some sense into her. One of Jan’s biggest strengths was very feasibly also her biggest weakness; her determination to always focus on the good in people, to ignore their flaws and instead choose to look at their positives. It was something that made Jan such a horrendous judge of character. Christ, she’d worked for the opposition for a year, after all.

Casting another glance at her friend and deciding she’d visibly gained back a little of her confidence, Brooke grabbed her own mug off the countertop. 

“Right, come on,” she said decisively. “We’re going to go back to our desks and drink these up and get on with our work, because these snakes that have slithered into the department don’t change a single thing about how capable you are as a professional. Okay?”

With a stifled smile Jan led the way back to the office, leaving Brooke wondering if she could still maintain the bitchy façade she always presented to the world if she was getting this good at cheering people up.

***

Sadly that wasn’t the only encounter they had to suffer with the opposition that day. Nicky soon appeared in the department’s offices with Nina, almost as a grand finale to the tour of Dosac she’d been given so far. She watched with narrowed eyes as Nicky made her way from desk to desk of the comms team, shaking hands and smiling in a sickeningly sweet manner that made Brooke want to hurl. Gigi and Crystal hovered behind Nicky’s shoulders like little cartoon devils and angels, except in Brooke’s opinion neither of them had many angelic qualities about them.

Attempting to ignore the gatecrashers in her office, Brooke turned back to her monitor. She supposed that maybe both Gigi and Crystal were pleasant people. Perhaps even Nicky at a push. They might still have been fun and friendly people to hang out with, after all, the politics they followed didn’t define them. Suddenly remembering a very obvious exception (Hitler), Brooke sent another withering glare the opposition’s way. Hit with another pang of doubt, she reasoned that comparing Nicky Doll to Hitler was perhaps an overreaction. Tuning out of the immigration stats that sat in front of her, Brooke instead found herself listening in to the conversation between Nicky and Nina. 

“The space here is lovely. Very professional, very focused. There’s maybe about twenty-five percent that I’m not okay with, though. I think I’d prefer isolation booths for everybody to work in- it’ll keep everyone more on task,” Nicky asserted, Brooke noticing out the corner of her eye how Yvie and Scarlet both recoiled in horror at the thought of not being able to chat and keep each other going throughout the day. 

“Okay, so you’d prefer isolation booths in addition to the longer working hours of 8.30am til 7pm, and only half an hour for lunch,” Nina confirmed. Her hair was twice as big and frizzy as it usually was, probably as a result of tearing half of it out in frustration after the amount of hours she’d spent with Nicky. 

“Christ, does she want us chained to the phones as well?” Adore mumbled. Brooke immediately tensed up- if she had heard that comment, then Nicky definitely had too. Sure enough, Nicky whipped her head round and stared Adore straight in the eye.

“That’s very funny, but no. I would not be chaining people to phones, I would simply be employing popular and common tactics that are used by employers the world over. Something which you wouldn’t have to worry about, because I wouldn’t have you working for me,” she smiled fake-sweetly, her voice getting more and more clipped as she reached the end of her sentence. 

Brooke found herself praying that the opposition would never reach any position of power whatsoever if they were going to have this tiny dictator running the department. Adore had slunk down into her wheely chair, as if trying to make herself invisible. Suddenly, Brooke heard Jackie’s office door open behind her.

“What the hell is going on out here?” she muttered as she reached Brooke’s desk, looking straight at the visitors to the department. Glad of an opportunity to relieve the tension, Nina once again plastered the fake smile on her face. 

“Minister, may I introduce your opposite number, Shadow Minister Nicky Doll,” she smiled at Jackie, waving a hand at Nicky as if she was unveiling a booby prize on a game show. 

It was interesting to watch how the two women regarded each other. Nicky immediately narrowed her eyes, pursing her lips together in a display of agitation at no longer being the highest authority in the room. She made no show of moving to shake Jackie’s hand, in fact she didn’t appear to want to speak to Jackie at all. Instead, Jackie herself made the first move and stepped forward once, twice, finally reaching a safe distance and holding out a hand for Nicky to shake. Her face was placid and gave nothing away. Almost Sleeping Beauty-esque, Brooke thought. 

“Nicky, it’s so good to finally meet you properly,” she smiled calmly as Nicky gingerly took her hand to shake. “I hope you and your team have had a good day in the department?”

“Oh yes, it's been lovely. Although obviously there are a number of things that will need changed once we get into power!” Nicky gave a fake little laugh, her eyes still hostile. 

“Well. _If_ ,” Jackie wrinkled her nose in a smile, which Nicky returned sourly.

Brooke was suddenly distracted by a buzz from her phone. Yvie.

_Y: Christ there’s more fake smiles in here than the outpatients’ at a fucking plastic surgery_

If Brooke had been in the mood she probably would have been howling with laughter, but the tense, uncomfortable conversation was still taking place.

“I found it interesting that you chose to highlight my disagreement with Manila Luzon in your interview with Chad Michaels. I felt it slightly undermined your point about the need to raise other women in politics up when you yourself were clearly intent on taking me down,” Nicky continued to smile falsely, the bitter undertone to her words not going unnoticed by Brooke. Jackie kept calm, smiling lazily back and raising her eyes to the ceiling. 

“Oh, I don’t know about undermining my point. In order to make a good argument, you have to present some evidence to back it up, and that’s all I was doing. I’m sure you understand it was nothing personal,” she said, giving a little nod. 

Nicky flared her nostrils, her face now unimpressed as she swept a hand through her hair, rendering her bun a little messy. “Well. It was lovely to meet you anyway, Jackie, but I still have numerous issues to talk through with Nina. If you’ll excuse me.” 

With that, Nicky turned on her heel, not even bothering to wait for a reply. On her way back to Nina, she stopped to murmur something in Gigi’s ear, which then resulted in Gigi marching round the corner. Brooke could have followed her up, but was too distracted by Jackie coming to hover at her desk. 

“Numerous issues? I’ll bet she has numerous fucking issues, God. Let’s hope that lot never get into power, she’s more unhinged than a flat pack IKEA cupboard,” Jackie whispered, causing Brooke to splutter a laugh. Jackie smirked at her reaction, then her face grew suddenly serious. “Did you know if Nina managed to get that photo op cancelled?”

“She did it about half an hour after we spoke. Jan really got on her back about it, so it was pretty impossible for Nina to wriggle out of it,” Brooke explained offhandedly, trying in vain to focus on her work. Looking up, she noticed that Jackie seemed to have a faraway look on her face. 

“She’s so good, isn’t she? Jan. She’s just incredible. So organised and on it,” Jackie said quietly to no-one in particular. Confused, Brooke simply nodded. Apparently remembering where she was, Jackie cleared her throat, smoothed her skirt down and returned to her office.

Around ten minutes later, Brooke thought she was making some real headway with the persisting immigration data. That was until she almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand come crashing down on her shoulder. Spinning around rapidly in her wheely chair she was shocked to see Bianca looming above her, her face grave as her eyes met Brooke’s.

“Bianca, holy fuck. You scared the crap out of me,” Brooke sighed, Bianca not even cracking a smile as her grip on Brooke’s shoulder tightened and she escorted her out of the room. Brooke’s stomach churned as she was led out into the corridor. What the hell was happening, or what the hell had happened, or what the hell was about to happen?

The bright white light of the corridor contrasted violently with Bianca’s expression, which was the personification of the wrath of God itself. She was silent for a moment, which prompted Brooke to tentatively speak first. 

“So, um. Why did you want to see-”

“I want to know why a certain Sasha Belle over at transport now has the very same PR stunt I very nearly passed a kidney stone to secure for Jackie,” Bianca snapped. Her voice was cold and low, and Brooke felt goosebumps prickle over her skin just hearing her speak. She felt conflicted. Half of her wanted to reveal Jackie’s personal reasons for having backed out; it was a legitimate excuse and might even make Bianca feel some form of remorse, God willing. On the other hand, it was a part of Jackie’s life which Brooke was sure she wanted to leave behind, and if more and more people knew about it, well. That would make it increasingly hard to forget. Biting her lip, she tried to tell a white lie.

“She had personal reasons for backing out. We decided as her team of advisors that it would be best if she didn’t go through with it.”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass what deeply held personal fucking reasons she had against it, it is her JOB to go to photo ops, it is her JOB to give herself media coverage!”

“Well she couldn’t even if you wanted her to. Not legally anyway,” Brooke found herself saying, her voice too loud in the echoey hallway. Bianca raised her eyebrows a little, as if urging Brooke to go on. Slightly regretting having not simply kept her mouth shut, Brooke continued.

“Jackie had her driving license revoked. It was years ago- she was texting while driving and crashed on the motorway. So even if she wanted to do the damn publicity, she couldn’t,” she explained, sighing as Bianca’s face slowly took on a look of realisation. “I don’t know how you didn’t already know this, Bianca. Her license was fake, I don’t get how that slipped by you. I thought you did background checks on everyone that came within a five mile radius of the party.”

Bianca exhaled loudly, slowly running one hand down her face. She opened her mouth to speak, then shut it, then opened it again. 

“When I asked you about Jackie, it wasn’t just a casual, out-of-interest enquiry. We were seriously fucking desperate. We had nothing on her, nothing on her at all apart from the fact that we knew she had a degree in politics and she’d been around the stock exchange for years. We were just desperate to get Darienne out of the party and stop the fucking spiral of madness she was driving us all down. Her position had become toxic, Brooke Lynn, nobody we approached about the job would touch it. So we needed somebody unknown, someone who wouldn’t know or understand who she was succeeding. That’s why we failed to do intensive background checks. I mean, we established that Jackie hadn’t murdered or stabbed anyone, for Christ’s sake. But everything else we had to skim over. We couldn’t have had Darienne in her job for any longer, it would have just...it would have just killed the party.”

Brooke could sort of understand where Bianca was coming from. Taking a calming breath, she suddenly felt the panic rise up in her throat again. “But Bianca, if this gets to the papers-”

Bianca cut her off, holding a single hand up in front of her face and looking down the corridor with suspicion. Wordlessly, she walked to the double doors at the end of the corridor and wrenched them open. Behind them stood Gigi, who jumped at the sudden movement. 

“Oh. Hello Bianca. I was just, uh. Trying to find the toilets. This department is like a damn labyrinth, you know?” she laughed awkwardly, almost paralysed under Bianca’s glare. 

“Do you want a massive cup to press against the door too, or are you good?” she quipped dryly.

Brooke’s heart began to palpitate nervously. Gigi had clearly been behind that door and listening for quite some time. How long, she didn’t know. But if she’d heard the reason why Jackie couldn’t drive, this was all different kinds, shades, textures and flavours of bad. 

“Bianca, really. All I heard was that Jackie wasn’t exactly vetted properly. Which, you know, could be kind of a big story in itself, I think,” Gigi smiled cunningly. All at once, Brooke wanted to laugh. Attempting to get the upper hand on Bianca Del Rio was an interesting tactic, one which basically ensured you weren’t going to win. Deciding to step back, Brooke let Bianca take the reins. 

“Oh, I see! You were looking for a story! Well here, here’s a great one for you,” Bianca smiled sinisterly, putting Brooke in mind of a predator about to pounce. “Did you know that Jaqueline Cox is sitting in that office there despite the fact her driving license got revoked? She crashed her car on the motorway because she tried to text and drive at the same time. Did you not know that?”

Brooke watched as Gigi’s face lit up at the revelation. She had to admit she didn’t really know where Bianca was going with this or what she had to gain from revealing the information to one of the Shadow Minister’s aides. As Brooke attempted to interject, Bianca simply turned and fixed her with a smile. 

“You didn’t know that, no?” she asked Gigi again. She simply shook her head, delighted at what had just been revealed. “Oh, wait, of course...you wouldn’t know that! Because the only people who do know that are, um, Miss Cox...her three advisors...and me. If this information got to the press…I would know that it came from you.”

Brooke wanted to practically jump for joy as she saw Gigi’s face fall, growing very apprehensive as Bianca took two steps towards her. Her voice lowering, Bianca continued the onslaught. 

“And I would rain down upon you so hard that your body would have to be re-assembled by crash team investigators-” she hissed. Gigi opened her mouth to defend herself and Bianca immediately stopped her. “- do not fucking interrupt me, girl. Now, you breathe a word of this to ANYONE, you fucking living toothpick, and I will-”

Already shaking with laughter, Brooke ducked her head out of the door and ran into the offices. 

“Jan! ‘Ness! Come quick. Bianca’s going off on one at Gigi,” she stage-whispered, the two girls looking up, bemused but quickly following Brooke back to the corridor doors nonetheless. The double doors were fronted with a small pane of clear glass, which the three girls all peered through to see Bianca continuing to verbally grill Gigi, now far less composed than she was before. 

“…I will eviscerate you, right? And I mean, I don’t have your education, I don’t know what that means. But I’ll start by plucking your eyes out and I’ll busk it from there. Okay? Glad we’re agreed. Have a great day.” 

As Gigi stumbled back down the hall in a daze as if she’d just crawled out of an avalanche, the three girls on the other side of the door tried to compose themselves after their laughing fit. 

“Bianca has such a way with words,” Jan mused, wiping tears from her eyes. “So why was she yelling at Gigi, what had she done? Looked at her?”

Brooke explained what had happened to the two girls, watching as their facial expressions shifted from confused, to fearful, then some semblance of reassured. There was still an aspect that was a little panicked, however, the knowledge that Gigi knew about Jackie’s past clearly worrying them both. 

“Look, don’t give it too much thought. Bianca has it all under control. She always does,” Brooke reassured them, shrugging as she walked back to her desk. 

“Guess I’m happy to trust Bianca,” Vanessa smiled, relaxing a little. “Hey, you ladies had lunch yet?”

“Not yet. Pret?” Brooke offered, Vanessa smiling beautifully and picking up her bag from her chair. Brooke didn’t miss how Jan simply nodded silently, her face still troubled, clearly not as trusting of Bianca as Vanessa was.

***

As the three girls sat huddled around Jan’s desk eating their lunch, Brooke watched as Vanessa scoffed down her messy meatball panini with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese that oozed out the side and made long, inconvenient strings. She could have teased Vanessa for her shambles of a lunch but she decided against it, instead choosing to compliment her. 

“‘Ness, how can you eat literally whatever you want and still look so good?” Brooke asked, attempting to look offhanded but still feeling like her guts were made of jelly as the words came out her mouth. It was hugely tiresome how much more nervous and self-aware she was around Vanessa now that she’d actually acknowledged her crush on her. It was much harder to pretend things were purely platonic if she gave her a compliment. 

In response, Vanessa simply smiled bashfully and shrugged, her mouth full of food. “Hey, I always wonder the same thing about you, baby. I’d kill to look like you.”

“With these thighs? Girl, no you wouldn’t,” Brooke snorted, trying to keep herself from blushing. 

“You got good thighs,” Vanessa insisted, making Brooke wonder just how much attention Vanessa paid to her legs. Snapping out of it, Brooke told herself that she was probably just being kind. After a beat of silence, Jan cut in.

“Well, I know both of you find me wildly attractive and are also madly jealous of my amazing figure, which is why neither of you have said anything,” she joked through a mouthful of salmon salad. Brooke gave her a playful shove, shocked when she heard a little cry.

“Jesus, Jan! It wasn’t that sore.”

“That wasn’t me. That came from Jackie’s office,” Jan said gravely, looking at the Minister’s office door where she could just see the blonde bun belonging to Nicky peering over the strip of frosted glass. Exchanging concerned looks, all three girls made their way over.

Brooke was the first to walk in and when her gaze met Jackie’s her heart sank. She was sitting behind her desk and had turned pale, her eyes frightened and huge in her face which had gone almost ghostly white. Turning her gaze to Nicky she noticed that the girl seemed smug in some way, as if she had the upper hand. In a moment, Brooke knew exactly what had happened. 

Gigi had spilled.

“Miss Doll, you ain’t actually allowed in here. This is the Minister’s private office,” Vanessa began in a valiant effort to stick up for Jackie who was clearly past sticking up for herself. 

“Oh, it’s quite alright. Jackie and I were just having a little chat. A little reminisce on the past, if you like. Well. Her past,” Nicky smiled, casting an amused gaze at Jackie whose face was ashen and defeated as she sat at her desk. Brooke suddenly felt herself overcome with fury.

“I hope you’re giving Gigi a big pay rise for that information. She won’t have much time to spend it though once Bianca finds out. I’d maybe give her two…three days left to live?” she hissed, her face contorted as she glared at the shadow minister. 

“Brooke Lynn, is it?” Nicky addressed her, Brooke momentarily wondering how she knew her name. “Brooke Lynn. We all know what it’s like in politics. Unfortunately if someone has some information on someone else, it’s only natural that they’re going to exploit it. And that’s all that’s happening here! It’s not personal. Just professional.”

“Like hell are you exploiting anything,” Jan spat, her face dark. Come to think of it, Brooke had never really seen her so angry, but the tiny girl was like a spitfire as she narrowed her eyes at her old boss. “You know full well where to draw the line between personal and political information. If you leak this to the media then you’re more reprehensible than the party you represent.”

“I’m sorry ladies, but this is how you play the game, and I play to win. I’m not really prepared to discuss it any further,” Nicky rolled her eyes, picking up her bag from where it sat on Jackie’s desk. 

Just as she made to leave, Nicky turned to see Bianca standing in the doorway of Jackie’s office, glancing with confusion at the scene in front of her.

“Bianca!” Vanessa cried, for once happy to see the Prime Minister’s enforcer. “We were just talkin’ about how Nicky maybe shouldn’t go to the papers about Jackie…? Telling them about her driving license? Tryin’ to think of a reason why this would reflect badly on her party in some way…?”

Brooke watched as Vanessa looked pleadingly at Bianca, willing her to do something, anything to spin them out of the situation. Bianca for her part seemed calm, upbeat even.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe she should! Good idea!” she shrugged, flashing a smile Nicky’s way as she turned and made to leave the room. 

Vanessa’s face immediately dropped as if she’d been slapped. Jan’s expression was completely blank. Brooke didn’t know what to think. It seemed as if Jackie was holding her breath, and Nicky simply stood rooted to the spot, her eyes still on Bianca as if she knew there was more to come. Sure enough, Bianca reached the doorframe, stopped, and turned on her heel. 

“Oh, shit, wait a minute! I know why she shouldn’t! Because you know, if she did that…she’d be dead,” Bianca said simply. 

Brooke watched as Nicky blinked silently at her. Bianca continued to speak.

“To me. To her advisors. To her party. To the electorate. And the only job she’d get in power is for this government’s catering company sweeping up crumbs as a kitchen cleaner, because I’d call every journalist I know, which of course- that’s all of them! Isn’t it Nicole! And I’d tell them all that lovely little story I’ve had saved for a rainy day, about a certain Right Honourable Lord Doll- how is your Dad, by the way?- and how he enjoyed a lovely five years as a member of the Bullingdon Club at university, a club so fucking morally bankrupt they had a exposé film made about them! Of course, the homeless person your Dad had to burn money in the face of for his initiation- he didn’t enjoy it so much. Nor did the live pigeon he had to bite the head off of either. And I believe there’s also rumblings about...something about a pig, which I won’t go into. And so I’d quite happily email all these journalists any photos and soundbites and CCTV footage they wanted, because I’d say…I’d say that’s quite a big story. I’d say that would probably contest a Minister’s silly little eight-year-old car accident in the running order of the ten o’clock news. That’s what I’d tell her,” Bianca finally finished calmly, smiling a little at Nicky whose mouth was now hanging open like a goldfish. Turning to Vanessa, Bianca simply nodded on her way out of the door. “But maybe you should tell her!”

Catching Vanessa’s eye, Brooke couldn’t help but burst into a triumphant grin. Vanessa returned the smile, now completely relaxed knowing that Jackie had the upper hand. Nicky was still standing completely still and hadn’t moved since Bianca had left. 

“I’ll, um. I’ll ask Nina to get your coat,” Jackie addressed Nicky pleasantly, sitting at her desk and pushing a single number on the phone as Nicky simply nodded wordlessly. 

Brooke wanted to burst out laughing. Bianca had her enemies in Westminster, but she was also an absolute mastermind.

***

They had made it through the day. They always did, after all. They were a great team, Brooke thought, and God help them if they were ever disbanded in any way. Sitting in a quieter corner of the office with her head tipped against the head of the sofa, Brooke took a deep breath. It was often needed at the end of days like these. Jan sat to her right, curled up against the arm of the couch and simply staring into the distance. Thinking for a moment, Brooke turned her head and stared at Jan.

“Do you think Bianca really had all that stuff to back up what she said about Nicky’s Dad?” 

Jan smirked and met Brooke’s eyes. “It’s Bianca. She’s a walking, talking database. She probably has shit on all of us. She probably knows stuff about us that we haven’t even done yet.”

Before Brooke could even try to get her head around Jan’s words, Vanessa joined them. She flung herself against the sofa dramatically, gently tilting her head so that it rested in the crook of Brooke’s shoulder. For a second she could barely breathe. 

“I wonder what she’s going to do to Gigi when she next sees her. Can’t imagine I’d want to be in her six-inch heels right now,” Brooke continued, trying to talk through her breathlessness. 

“We talkin’ about Bianca?” Vanessa murmured, nuzzling her head against Brooke’s shoulder to get comfortable. Christ, why the fuck did she have to do that?

“Yeah,” Jan smiled wistfully. “God, I’d be running for the hills if I was her. Alyssa’s charity ball is in three weeks, remember? I wouldn’t put it past Bianca to stage a live crucifixion as the night’s entertainment.”

Brooke felt Vanessa laugh softly against her side. She was such a warm, happy person, at least when she wasn’t stressing her head off at the latest party shambles. She was too good to be working here, but Brooke was so glad that she was.

“So you’re not going to be ditching us to run back to the opposition anytime soon then? Not going to be meeting up with Gigi and Crystal for a cute little catch-up coffee?” Brooke only half-joked, turning to address Jan again. She watched as Jan’s face grew a little dark, her brow furrowing as she let out a derisive laugh.

“I’m not fucking with anyone who attempts to sabotage Jackie’s career,” she said forebodingly. 

There it was again, Brooke thought, this protective side to Jan which she’d never really seen before. She didn’t think she’d ever get over how strange it was. 

Footsteps behind the sofa prompted all three of them to turn around. It was Jackie- she’d freshened up her makeup a little and had sprayed some deodorant or perfume or something that smelt nice. Reaching the sofa, she gave a warm smile to the three girls. 

“Thanks for your support today, ladies,” she said sincerely, leaning on the back of the sofa. “It was a tough one, but we got there in the end.”

“Sorry that Nina couldn’t arrange an alternative bit of PR in time, Jackie,” Vanessa smiled apologetically. Jackie let out a small laugh. 

“Are you kidding? That was a blessing in disguise. After the day I’ve had the last thing I want to do is go and feign interest in electric cars for an hour,” she shook her head. “Seriously though, thank you. You three are a total blessing.”

Brooke was surprised when she then turned to face Jan, her expression turning a little shy. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, two minutes. I need to pack up and I’ll be good,” Jan smiled timidly back at her, her cheeks going a little red. 

“Okay. I’ll wait at the lifts. See you tomorrow, girls,” Jackie said finally, waving goodbye to Brooke and Vanessa before walking away. 

Vanessa tipped her head off Brooke’s shoulder to lean forward and look at Jan, who was grabbing her coat. “Where are you two off to then, Miss Ma’am?”

Jan stopped in her tracks, as if she hadn’t really been expecting the question. “Oh! Um, Jackie’s just giving me a lift home.”

Brooke screwed up her face at her friend. “A lift home? In her car? That she drives? Is that meant to be a joke?”

Seemingly realising her mistake, Jan smiled and shook her head. “I meant her driver. Her driver’s going to drop me home on the way back to Jackie’s.”

Brooke sat blankly for a moment, turning to Vanessa and seeing her face hold the exact same expression. Vanessa laughed in disbelief. “Your flat’s five minutes away, you lazy shit!” 

“Hey, give me a break! I’m exhausted, a five minute walk is still a walk I don’t want to do, and I’ll take what I can get,” Jan shrugged, grabbing her bag and making to leave. “Bye, girls. See you both tomorrow.”

Brooke gave a tired reply as Jan made her way out of the department. Sighing, Vanessa leant against the arm of the sofa, kicking her legs over Brooke’s lap and subsequently causing Brooke’s pulse to quicken by about 90%. They sat in silence for a moment, Brooke’s brain too full to even contemplate starting a conversation. Luckily, it was Vanessa that spoke first. 

“Do you think something’s goin’ on there? Between Jackie and Jan?”

Brooke paused. If it were any other situation, she’d maybe have thought Vanessa was right. But this was work, and sometimes people got incredibly passionate about their party and the people that ran it. Jan had had to put up with Nicky, and then Darienne. It was only natural that now that she was finally working for someone competent of course she was going to want with every fibre of her being for that person to do well. Turning to face Vanessa, Brooke made a doubtful face. 

“No, girl. Jan’s just loyal. She wants to see Jackie do well. That’s all I think it is anyway.”

Brooke watched as Vanessa knit her brows together, frowning momentarily then casting her gaze into her lap. 

“You know-” she began, then cut herself off as she decided against saying whatever she had to say. Then, changing her mind, she began again. “I swear you’re so blind half the time, Brooke Lynn. I think you have your guard up so high you can’t even see when someone has feelings for someone else. It’s kinda…I don’t know. Anyway. It don’t matter.”

Brooke watched, astounded as Vanessa swung her legs off her lap and stood up. Her face was bright red, as if she was embarrassed in some way. Brooke felt she had to reply, but she had no idea what to say or how to respond. She simply blinked at Vanessa, as if her last ditch attempt at communication was morse code. 

“I’ll, uh. I’ll see you tomorrow then?” Vanessa continued, smoothing down her dress and smiling as if she hadn’t said a thing. Going along with the façade, Brooke nodded slowly. “Bye, Brooke.”

As Vanessa’s footsteps retreated down the office and into the lift, Brooke just stared straight ahead and tried to make sense of what Vanessa had said, or what it even meant, or what the implications were. It had felt like she was mad at her in some way, although Brooke couldn’t figure out what she’d done. What had she meant by it all? It made Brooke’s head hurt. 

She was still there when the cleaners arrived half an hour later, and she still hadn’t managed to unscramble her brain. Giving up, Brooke grabbed her coat and bag and made her way to the lifts, stuck with the feeling that somehow she’d left something behind. 


	4. Cross-Party Relations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions are still running high between Jackie and Nicky as both of them are invited to a radio debate to discuss how to deal with the refugee crisis. Brooke discovers something she doesn’t want to see and has to keep another secret that cannot be made public.

There was definitely something fishy going on in the department, and it wasn’t the gross tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches Nina’s wife made her for her lunches. 

Brooke hadn’t really noticed it at first. She’d been too busy with work if she was honest; December was looming ever closer and the hurry to compile the existing crime stats in time for New Year was a busy race. But she’d first spotted it on Monday, when Jan had been twenty minutes late for work and arrived at exactly the same time as Jackie, her face grubby with what was presumably makeup from the day before. 

“Christ Jan, did you get out the wrong side of bed this morning?” Brooke had pressed her, yelling across the office as Jan had sunk sheepishly into her chair. “And then hit a wall and dragged yourself through a river of pig shit and gorse bushes?”

Jan had simply rolled her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ears a little self-consciously. “I don’t look that bad, drama queen. Just overslept, that’s all! Now can we all just get on with our damn work before we accidentally delete the immigration figures or something?”

That had been that, and Brooke hadn’t really thought any more about it. That was until the next evening, when Jan seemed to leave work but reappeared again beside the lifts, dressed immaculately in a fancy red shift dress and gold heels with makeup to match. She’d quietly slipped away before Brooke could even interrogate her. 

The weirdest by far had been the morning after that, when Jan arrived at work in a dress that was almost identical, in fact completely identical, to one Brooke knew Jackie already owned.

“What, do we get to share Jackie’s clothes now? Is that our festive bonus this year?” Brooke had laughed incredulously, narrowing her eyes at Jan in confusion.

“What? It was a nice dress, I went and got the same one. It’s only from Zara, for God’s sake, it’s not the pinnacle of original fashion,” Jan had snorted in response. 

It was all just odd. There was also the fact that Jan was barely out of Jackie’s office prepping for the New Year’s trip to Brussels where the Minister, one of her advisors and one member of the comms team went over for an international summit on European social affairs. It was almost as if Brooke barely knew what was going on with her friend anymore. 

Vanessa was being weird with her as well. She’d turned colder, almost like some weird professional ghost of her former self. She barely even smiled when Brooke tried to joke with her, was strangely quiet, and never really ate lunch with her anymore. Brooke wished she knew what was happening. It wasn’t as if her crush on Vanessa had died down- in fact, being borderline ignored by her only made her heart hurt more, made her wonder if she’d done something horrendously wrong or offensive. Even as a friend it worried her, and she wished Vanessa would open up to her like she usually did.

The combination of what was essentially her two best work friends completely ditching her made Brooke feel a little lonelier than normal, and so she’d begun spending her lunch breaks with the comms team. Yvie was always happy to see her (even if she did tease Brooke about Vanessa mercilessly when nobody was listening), Scarlet would often share her snacks with her, and Brooke had found herself warming to Jaida who was actually very cheerful and friendly, though she concealed it well under a slightly intimidating facade. Although she liked spending time with the civil servants, Brooke couldn’t help but wish her friends would be back to normal again. 

It had started out as an ordinary Friday morning, if a little more boring now that Brooke no longer had Jan to bitch to or Vanessa to flirt with, even if said flirting was under the guise of being platonic. In fact, the morning almost had an atmosphere of calm- that was until Nina answered the phone and proceeded to squawk the department down.

“What?! The seven o’clock?! Absolutely not. There’s no way! It’s not possible to collate that amount of data in time, let alone brief her on everything necessary.”

At this point everyone had stopped working entirely, all eyes fixed on Nina who was biting her lip impatiently and staring at Jackie’s door with uncertainty. “I’d need to discuss it with her. Can I get you to call me back? Right. Thank you.”

“Who’s strangling a cat?” came a voice from the other end of the office. As if on cue, Jackie had appeared from her room. She seemed a little more tired today than usual, and was clutching a Red Bull for dear life in one hand. 

Casting her eyes back down the office, Brooke also noticed an identical Red Bull sitting on Jan’s desk just beside her computer monitor. 

Ignoring Jackie’s sarcasm, Nina gestured to the phone in irritation. “I have just come off the phone with Dan Donigan over at radio Five Live.”

“What, Milk?” Brooke piped up, curiosity piqued. Milk, to give him his stage name, was an interesting radio host and interviewer. He was a lovely guy, chilled and easy-going, and on the surface seemed like an easy interview. However, he was unforgiving and didn’t suffer fools gladly, and usually pounced on slip-ups. 

Barely acknowledging Brooke’s interjection, Nina continued. “And he had the utter nerve to ask for an interview with you at seven o’clock this evening, a ‘showdown’ between you and the shadow minister covering the refugee crisis.”

“Wait, he wants me _and_ Nicky?” Jackie asked, narrowing her eyes a little and suddenly more alert than she had been 60 seconds previously. Nina nodded in reply.

“I told him I’d have to ask you but if you want my opinion, there’s absolutely no way you should do it, Jackie. We have approximately-” she craned her neck to look at the clock. “- nine hours to prep you, which isn’t nearly enough time for you to collate all the facts and figures you’d need for a debate like that!”

“We had three hours to prepare for a Von’Du interview and still pulled it off,” Jan interjected, shrugging nonchalantly.

“Yes, Jan, but this is different. Widow Von’Du knew Jackie was in the right and simply wanted her as an illustration of tabloid sexism. This is Dan Donigan. And from what I’ve heard, he favours and votes with Nicky’s party.”

“Look, the crisis is something I care a lot about and know a lot about. I have a lot of the facts already, it wouldn’t take me long to brush up on them and potentially even learn a couple more of the intricacies. It would take, what, a couple of hours to fully brief me about Five Live? I see no reason why I can’t do this, Nina,” Jackie said, her eyes more determined than ever. 

Nina looked like a wearied mother whose child had just asked if they could have their entire class round for a sleepover the next day. 

“What’s Bianca’s opinion?” Brooke asked, leaning forward on her desk with her elbows. It made sense to her that they would ask Bianca, and if anyone was going to know if it was a good or bad idea it would be her. 

“No idea. Call her and ask,” Nina shrugged, clearly happy to be palming off some extra work. 

Despairing of Nina’s laziness for what must have been the thousandth time that year, Brooke took out her work phone and dialled Bianca.

“Brooke Lynn. Good morning,” Bianca chirped down the phone cheerfully. She seemed to be in a good mood, which was already promising.

“Bianca, hi. Listen, we’ve had Milk on the phone, he wants Jackie and Nicky for a debate about the refugee crisis at 7pm. What do you think?”

“I say carpe that fucking diem! Get her on.”

Surprised, Brooke gave her phone a double-take as if she hadn’t heard correctly. “Sorry, this is for 7pm tonight, not tomorrow.”

“I know how the fuck time works! Get her on the damn show.”

Brooke was nothing short of amazed. “Bianca, are you su- I mean, this is definitely a good idea then?”

“Listen. Jackie’s a walking, talking database. She retains facts and figures like some horrifying human sponge. She’s a confident girl, Dan will love her. Just get her on and get her to make Nicky look like she’s drowned hundreds of orphans personally with her own two hands.”

Rolling her eyes a little at Bianca’s harsh turn of phrase, Brooke had heard all she needed. “Okay, well, thanks for your input.”

She hit ‘end call’ before Bianca had a chance to say any more, turning to face Jackie, Nina and Jan who were all craning their necks and waiting to hear what the verdict was. 

“Hell has frozen over and Bianca has actually approved something,” Brooke shrugged, and was met with an excited beam of a smile from Jackie and a disgruntled sigh from Nina. “It’s going ahead. Nina, phone Milk back.”

Muttering in exasperation under her breath, Nina simply turned around in her swivel chair and dutifully began hitting a number of buttons on her phone. Waiting for some form of instruction from Jackie Brooke was surprised with she instead turned to Jan, chattering happily but not quite audibly. At one point Jackie seemed to excitedly grab one of Jan’s hands, squeezing it once, twice and then letting go. Jan didn’t appear the least bit fazed, as if this was almost a regular occurrence between them. In any event if Jackie tried to involuntarily grab Brooke’s hands mid-conversation she was getting some choice words. 

With nobody left to talk to, Brooke turned to Vanessa’s desk to find her deep in concentration, her brow furrowed like a tiny ploughed field. 

She’d been so deep in her work that she’d missed the entire exchange. 

***

It was another lonely lunchtime for Brooke. Well, she supposed she was being melodramatic. It was just that Jan had been called into the office yet again about the trip to Brussels, and Vanessa was sitting eating her lunch at her desk in front of her work. Brooke had asked if she wanted to join her but all she’d received in reply was a shake of Vanessa’s head and a small smile tinted a little with sadness. Brooke could’ve asked her about it, finally confronted her about whatever was going on with her, but she’d never heard of a successful heart-to-heart that had taken place over crime stats so she’d just joined the comms team for lunch instead. 

“Oh here she comes, ladies! The Minister’s political advisor has decided that she’s gracing us with her presence again today,” Yvie announced dramatically as Brooke took the chair next to her, earning her a barely-stifled laugh and an unimpressed roll of Brooke’s eyes. The table shoved into one of the corners of the office was small but they’d managed to fit Jaida, Scarlet and Yvie round it already, who were all currently munching their way through their lunch.

“Hey, just let me eat my disappointing Costa sandwich in peace, okay?”

“No, sorry. There’s nothing more disappointing than this,” Scarlet interjected, giving Yvie a death stare as she held up a sad-looking roll stuffed with crisps. “Who the fuck gives this to their girlfriend for their lunch? I swear this is a form of domestic abuse in some countries.”

“I’m sure there’s a child bride in the third world that’s weeping for you, Scarlet,” Jaida deadpanned, smirking a little at Yvie’s laughter. 

“All I’m saying is, why the fuck would the woman that supposedly loves me more than anything in the world give me this abomination in a ziplock bag?!”

“Hey! I tried my best, okay? You know I’m not domestic.”

At that moment Adore appeared at the table, almost melting into the hard plastic chair.

“Christ, you look like shit. Did Laila have you up all night?” Scarlet greeted her as Adore rubbed her eyes, clearly sleep deprived.

“Very funny,” she bit back, opening her pasta salad. “Sadly I didn’t even get any action. Her neighbours have just had a new baby and the walls are paper thin so we got treated to Beethoven’s ninth symphony in Constant Screeching until, like, 5am.”

“To be fair, you’ve prolly given them what sounds like porn through a loudspeaker quite a few times, girl,” Jaida joked, earning her a kick under the table from Adore. 

Brooke looked at Adore curiously. She had no idea that her and Laila were still a thing, least of all that Adore was at the stage where she was staying over. Well, she concluded, it did the party no harm to have a journalist on their side and it was certainly more fruitful an endeavour than chasing a co-worker around for weeks on end whilst being ignored. 

“Anyway, why’s she eating with us again?” Adore changed the subject, looking at Brooke with a slightly confused air. “Where’s your friends?”

Brooke glared at her a little, mildly offended. “Well Vanessa’s still working on those crime stats and Jan’s got another meeting with Jackie about Brussels.”

“Wait,” Jaida scrunched up her face, the picture of confusion. “That ain’t right. We’re not scheduled for meetings about Brussels until December, Jackie emailed me an’ Jan last week.”

“She’s taking _you_ to Brussels and not us?! How dare she! We’re the most professional and competent ones in this department,” Scarlet cried, appealing to her girlfriend for backup. Yvie simply smirked at her. 

“Scarlet you literally spilt your entire cappuccino over your keyboard yesterday. The whole thing.”

“I did n-”

“The whole. Thing,” Yvie repeated, chucking a piece of bread at Scarlet from across the table. 

“Hold on, hold on. Walk this back,” Brooke cut in quietly, looking Jaida directly in the eye. “So there’s no meetings about Brussels until next week?”

Jaida shook her head, still as confused as before. Brooke didn’t blame her- Jan and Jackie had been meeting for the past two weeks about Brussels, or at least that was what Brooke had been told. But now she didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know what they’d been talking about or planning. She hadn’t been told anything, neither had Vanessa, and that made her blood boil.

Setting her lunch down on the table Brooke marched towards Jackie's office, the combination of determination and annoyance almost clouding her vision. If she was being cut out of the loop it would be the last, mouldy cherry on top of this shitstorm of this week's cake. What did she care that Jackie was in charge? She had no right to exclude her and no right to exclude Vanessa either, Brooke's heart swelling at the thought of her crush. No wonder she'd been so distant all week. If Jackie was planning something with only one advisor then Brooke had half a mind to tell her where she could stick her job.

That was until she burst open the door and saw Jackie sat behind her desk, her head tipped back, legs spread and her eyes half-lidded, the smallest moan escaping her lips. Looking at the foot of the desk, Brooke suddenly understood why- the red bottoms of Jan's Louboutins poked out from the strip of the desk just above the floor, almost concealing her from view but not quite.

She put two and two together and got one million.

Aware that she'd slightly flung the door open, and still half in shock, Brooke began to back out. 

"I'll, um. Okay. I'm...yeah," she babbled quietly, the sudden noise in the room causing Jackie's eyes to fly open and her hands to shoot immediately up from her lap as if Brooke had her at gunpoint. Ignoring her protestations, Brooke made her way briskly down the corridor and into the bathroom, shutting the door firmly behind her. 

She badly needed to clear her head. It made sense, of course it made sense. It explained away so much of what had been going on in Dosac in the past fortnight. She just couldn't believe how stupid she'd been not to notice it. Vanessa had been right all along, and Brooke could've kicked herself for not listening to her. Furthermore, she could've kicked Jan for her stupidity in the matter as well. What the fuck was she thinking about, getting into a relationship or casual fucking or whatever the hell this whole mess was with Jackie? With her boss?! How was she now meant to give impartial advice about serious departmental- scratch that, governmental matters? 

Making to splash some cold water on her face, Brooke stopped when the bathroom door burst open to reveal Jan. 

"Brooke Lynn," she began, seemingly not knowing how she would follow it up. Her face was flushed, a scarlet blush striking her cheeks as if she'd been slapped. 

"I, uh. I don't really know what to think," Brooke shrugged, looking her friend in the eye and wondering if she really recognised her all that much anymore. "You didn't tell me anything, Jan. I mean, what am I meant to think? What even is this? What the fuck is going on?! I just..."

"We're together," Jan cut in quietly. "Me and Jackie. We've been seeing each other these past two weeks."

There was a frosty pause in which Brooke wanted to give all kinds of sarcastic remarks, but nothing could really hide how much she'd been hurt by the whole situation. "I just don't understand...Jan, she's your boss."

"Yeah, well..." Jan sighed, running a hand through her hair and appearing frustrated at not being able to articulate herself properly. "It doesn't feel like that, Brooke. It feels different. It doesn't feel like she’s my boss, it feels like we're equals."

"Well that's just great. But it doesn't change the fact that you've not been able to give a single piece of impartial advice since she's arrived. You've sided with her on everything, Jan. It's been up to me and Vanessa to be the fucking common sense in this department."

As Brooke finished, Jan shrank back, leaning a little on the sink and casting her eyes to the white tiled floor. Annoyed at the pang of sudden sympathy she felt for her friend, Brooke changed tack.

"Does anyone else know?" she asked her urgently.

"No," Jan sighed, appearing sincere as she looked Brooke in the eye. "You're the only one."

Rolling her eyes, Brooke scuffed the floor with the heel of her shoe. So now she was being burdened with this, this massive mess that Jan had managed to enter into, hell, that Jackie had entered into as well. It wasn't fair. It wasn't her secret to keep. Growing more annoyed by the minute, Brooke found herself snapping at her friend.

"And so you want me to go to the trouble of covering this up for you and helping you both be happy as two pigs in shit together, wilfully ignoring the inevitable shitstorm this will cause if it gets to the press. I mean what are the papers going to make of this, Jan?! They find out that Jackie's been fucking one of her advisors so none of her policies have been properly analysed or vetted because the aides are too elbow-deep in their boss to care? I mean why the fuck should I cover this for you, because as far as bad ideas go this sounds as if it could've been dreamed up by Darienne!"

"Because if this was you and Vanessa, you would beg me to do the same!" Jan barked back, covering her mouth slightly as if she'd just vomited all over the bathroom floor.

Brooke felt her spine freeze up, as if she was suddenly in a horrible nightmare. 

"How…How the fuck do you know about that? Did Yvie tell you, is that it? Did Yvie tell everyone? Holy fucking shit."

Feeling the panic rise in her throat, Brooke's breathing hitched a little. This was an unmitigated disaster, people knew. Hell, Vanessa probably knew, why else would she have been avoiding her? There was no way on God's earth that Brooke could show her face in the department again. Catching a quick glimpse of herself in the mirror, she noticed she'd gone completely white. 

Clearly feeling guilty, Jan took Brooke gently by the wrist. Her voice was softer as she addressed her friend. "No, girl. Nobody told me. I worked it out. I recognised that look you've been giving her for ages. It was the same one I’d been giving Jackie since the day she arrived, to be honest.”

Brooke barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes, admittedly grateful that the news of her crush clearly wasn’t all around the office. Pausing a little in the silence, she cleared her throat. 

“I won’t, um. I won’t tell anyone about you and Jackie, Jan. I was never going to, you’re my friend for Christ’s sake. I just want you to know what you’re getting yourself into,” Brooke muttered, sweeping a long strand of hair out of her face. Jan smiled slightly guiltily. 

“Thank you. I do. And you’re right, maybe I could work on that whole impartiality thing. Honestly though, don’t worry. We won’t do anything that would put the integrity of the party at risk,” she said sincerely, squeezing Brooke’s hand gently. Glad that things seemed to be calming down, Brooke let out a breath she hadn’t really known she’d been holding. Jan suddenly opened her mouth again, a cheeky glint in her eye. “You’re clearly worried about it getting out, but if you ever need someone to talk to about Vanessa, well. I’m always here. You’re my friend, Brooke and…well, no matter how involved I get with anyone, that won’t change.”

Relaxing a little, Brooke allowed herself to laugh. “Thanks, Jan. Has she, um. Has she mentioned anything to you?”

Jan gave her a quizzical look. If she was being honest, Brooke hadn’t really meant to ask Jan anything, but the constant silence from Vanessa was making her worried. Clearly deciding not to ask about it, Jan shrugged. 

“Not to me. In fact, she’s not really said much to me at all these past few days. She’s been a little quiet, don’t you think?”

Brooke simply nodded in reply, secretly glad she wasn’t the only one that Vanessa had been weird with. 

“I guess I’ve been too caught up in the honeymoon phase of everything with me and Jacks that I haven’t really been making much time for my friends,” Jan admitted, her face guilty as she looked to the floor. Realising that she’d probably suffered enough, Brooke pulled her friend into a hug. 

“It’s okay, we’ve all done it. Well, not me, because I don’t actually have a heart.”

“Hey, you know you can’t make those jokes anymore now you've admitted you have feelings!”

“Shut up and let me maintain the illusion in peace! Anyway. V’s clearly going through something. I guess all we can do is just...show her we’re there for her?" Brooke sighed, slightly at a loss as to what to do anymore since her life was beginning to be turned upside down at such a rapid pace, like some bizarre hourglass that someone kept flipping over and over.

“Agreed,” Jan smiled. Her smile was so infectious and goofy and loved-up that Brooke couldn’t help but smile back, happy to have at least one of her friends back again. 

“Hey, did you have lunch yet? Mine is still half-eaten at the table. Well, if Scarlet hasn’t got to it yet,” Brooke joked, earning a laugh from her friend. 

“Well I ate something, but I'm not sure it would qualify as lunch,” Jan raised an eyebrow, and as Brooke immediately burst out laughing so did she. "God, that's the most gross joke I've ever made!"

Still laughing, Brooke held the door open for her friend and they walked back to the offices to eat lunch together.

***

The building that held the Five Live studios was nice from what Brooke had seen of it so far. The entranceway was open and airy and certainly wasn’t as intimidating as it had seemed from the outside. The café also didn’t seem too much of a rip off, which was half the problem with a lot of the BBC buildings. Rubbing her eyes a little and being careful to avoid her eye makeup, Brooke began pouring herself a latte from the coffee machine. It hadn’t been too long of a drive but Brooke had still found herself wishing for the energetic presence of Jan as she sat squashed between Vanessa and Jackie who had both been completely silent for the duration of the journey with their heads in their notebooks or their phones. She wished Jan had been there to pep them up but one of them had had to stay behind in the department in case anything horrific happened with communications while they were away and considering the events of earlier Jan had volunteered herself, saving Brooke from feeling like the third wheel on the office tryst tricycle. 

It was good to have Jan back properly as a friend. Even in the short space of time between their chat in the bathrooms to the drive to the Five Live studios, Brooke felt it was as if nothing had ever happened. If anything she felt closer to Jan; now that they both knew each other’s secrets they could open up to each other, and Brooke felt far better for it. She actually felt happy for her friend, and hearing her talk about Jackie made her realise that what they had was definitely more than a flimsy office romance. 

Taking her coffee to the counter to pay, Brooke noticed Jackie already at the till. She realised that she hadn’t yet addressed the elephant in the room between them. Wondering if she should say something, she noticed that Jackie had only bought an apple and a bottle of water.

“Hey. You nervous?” she asked her, making Jackie jump a little bit beside her and subsequently answering Brooke’s question without her even having to speak.

“A little,” Jackie smiled, seemingly grateful that Brooke obviously didn’t hate her. “It’s just I’m expected to be an expert on this, you know? I feel like I need to deliver. I know it’s only a silly radio debate but if I argue my point clearly enough we could maybe finally get something done about this in parliament.”

Brooke nodded understandingly. “You’ll be fine, honestly. You’re good at shit like this.”

There was a small pause in which Brooke wasn’t sure if it was the time to bring up the whole situation with Jan. Jackie seemed to sense what Brooke was thinking.

“Look, Brooke, I’m really sorry for…well, earlier. It was severely unprofessional, I’m really not normally like that, I swear,” she babbled out, clearly trying her best to look Brooke in the eye but too embarrassed to follow through with it. Laughing a little at the scarlet blush that was beginning to attack Jackie’s pale cheeks, Brooke put her out of her misery. 

“Jackie. It’s okay. Jan talked to me about it. Sure, I don’t think it’s the most amazing idea in the world, but you two are clearly happy and as long as it’s not going to intervene in your work, then who am I to stop you?” she shrugged, turning around at the last second to pay for her coffee. When she turned back, she thought for a moment before adding, "No hard feelings."

Jackie smiled at her, relieved. 

“You’re a good friend, Brooke,” she said sincerely, which stopped Brooke in her tracks a little. She didn’t really think of Jackie as one of her friends, but thinking about it she supposed that there was probably no harm in letting someone else in. She simply smiled in return as Jackie continued. “I didn’t plan on getting so hung up on Jan but that very first day when I arrived at Dosac and met her I just instantly felt connected to her, you know? I think she felt that way too.”

“She did. She’s told me,” Brooke smirked, watching as Jackie broke out into a huge smile. 

“Wow. I guess I try not to talk about those sorts of feelings so much round her in case it scares her off,” Jackie shrugged, her face still bashful. 

“Trust me, I don’t think you’re in danger of doing that in a hurry.”

Just then, the little click-clack of heels behind them announced the arrival of Vanessa, her footsteps almost as quiet as her recent demeanour. 

“We good?” she asked, putting on what looked to be a brave face. “Nicky and her team should already be there. There’s still a couple minutes to go but it’s best to be early, right?”

Brooke smiled and nodded encouragingly in an attempt to counteract Vanessa’s downbeat air, and the three made their way over to the lifts.

Six floors up sat the Five Live studios, a labyrinth of corridors and tiny offices with sofas and armchairs perched outside them. Three right-turns away from the lift they were greeted by the three stony faces of Nicky, Gigi and Crystal, a tall girl with long, straight blonde hair in a ponytail and huge hoop earrings, and a relaxed-looking man with a chiselled jaw and styled brown hair. If Brooke hadn’t known who he was, she’d have mistaken him for a male model.

“Jackie, hi! Lovely to meet you. I’m Dan, although please do call me Milk,” he smiled, leaning forward and shaking Jackie’s hand warmly. Jackie seemed a little taken aback by such a friendly gesture from a journalist, but then Milk wasn’t really all that conventional anyway. Today he was wearing loose, cuffed black joggers and a baggy hoodie; so not exactly a picture of professionalism, but over the years Brooke had learnt never to judge a book by its cover. Turning to include the opposition, Milk carried on.

“Okay, so you’ve probably heard the breaking news that Scotland are going to be aiming to take 20,000 refugees within the next five years, so we’re going to be covering that and springboarding the debate from there. The news is going to be after you.”

A quick glance to Nicky showed that the breaking news obviously hadn’t been broken to her yet. She was shooting a side-glance at Gigi that could’ve melted a steel beam. Gigi had the same level of discomfort on her face as someone halfway through a colonoscopy.

“This is Ganja, she’s our producer,” Milk waved a hand to the girl beside him, who smiled briefly and snuck a look at her clipboard.

“Your advisors will be allowed in the control room, although they will have to keep the noise down so I can put through texts to Milk. And this is all going out live, so no swearing from either of you two,” she glared coldly at Jackie and Nicky as if she’d just been informed that both of them had Tourette’s. “You’re all in this green room here.”

She gestured to the glass-panelled room beside the corridor, in which sat two coffee tables, three little sofas, and a coffee machine. Suddenly, Brooke noticed that Jackie was smiling as if she was holding back a joke.

“No swearing! I guess we can all thank our fucky stars for that.”

Brooke wanted to roll her eyes as the awkward joke prompted an equally awkward silence. Milk was the one to finally break it. 

“Okay...we’re going to go start the show and then Ganja will come and get you when it’s time. Please take a seat,” he smiled, walking off down the corridor with the producer.

Still cringing at Jackie’s joke, Brooke led the way into the green room and relaxed onto the sofa. To her surprise, Vanessa sat beside her. It would have been a normal occurrence every other day, but today Brooke was surprised that Vanessa wanted to be near her at all considering her recent mood. As Jackie sat down, Brooke became vaguely aware of Nicky ranting away to a sheepish-looking Gigi. 

“…why I, the fucking shadow minister for _social affairs and citizenship_ , apparently doesn’t know shit about what’s going on in relation to that? I mean we’re meant to be the bitches that are one step ahead all the damn time!”

“Honestly Nicky, Gigi just probably didn’t get the News 24 notification. I didn’t know anything either!” Crystal chipped in supportively, shooting Gigi a comforting gaze.

“Oh, you think you’re immune to this?!” Nicky suddenly turned on her incredulously. Realising she’d perhaps been a little too loud she shot Jackie a sudden faux-relaxed smile, then resumed her hissing. “I mean, why didn’t you know? Why doesn’t anybody _know_ anything? Jesus, twenty-fucking-thousand refugees? How am I going to explain that one to the cabinet? You know we’re going to get the blame for this, right? Ugh, I can already see the gammons yelling at me at the next constituent surgery. When I see Morgan at Alyssa’s damn ball next week, she’s getting a piece of my mind. I mean, this decision has just come completely out of nowhere!”

“I guess it is their problem though, Nicky. I mean it’s their government, they’ve got to worry about it, not us,” Crystal shrugged, attempting to calm the energy in the room down and failing. 

“That’s all very well and good, Crystal, until the public start asking me why I didn’t challenge it, or if things will be the same in the other three quarters of this damn so-called United Kingdom. I mean, hell, the only reason Morgan’s doing this is so she can look good to the rest of the world and get some traction going on these dreams of another fucking independence referendum which was bad enough the first time round!” Nicky’s voice raised to a dramatic crescendo as she reached the end of her sentence and slapped her lever arch file across her knees for emphasis. The room fell silent once more as Brooke caught Jackie’s eye and they shared a knowing smile. Nicky was flustered, and that was good news for them.

A couple more minutes of frosty silence passed where neither Nicky or Jackie would look at each other. 

“This is a joke. Are we just going to ignore each other until the debate starts?” Jackie whispered to Brooke. 

“I think that’s her plan. Anyway, it might be for the best. Release all the pent-up aggression in the studio like a political Mike Tyson.”

“Well, as long as she doesn’t bite my literal ear off then I’m fine,” Jackie joked, shuddering a little. Just then, the silence in the room was broken by Crystal’s phone, the classic and yet generic iPhone ringtone deafening in the glass room. 

“It’s Bob,” she whispered to Nicky. Nicky looked momentarily as if someone had swiftly removed every organ from her body in one go. Brooke perked up. If the opposition’s spin doctor was trying to contact them, something important was obviously going on. She tucked her hair behind her ears in order to try and hear better.

“Hi Bob!” Crystal sing-songed down the phone in an effort to appear cheerful. Her face immediately faltered as something was being yelled down the line to her. Looking to Nicky, she leaned closer and Brooke could only make out certain things she was whispering. 

“...complete U-turn …in concurrence with the British people…side with the government…”

Nicky was not as subtle. Narrowing her eyes at the phone then back to Crystal, she murmured a reply. “Crystal. I’ve been invited here for a debate. If I U-turn, there won’t be any debate. Plus I will be the only shadow minister in the whole party pulling this stance and I am not going to be spending the rest of my days in Westminster feeling like the girl who has to go and eat her lunch in the toilets, so no, the answer’s no.”

Just then, Ganja appeared from the corridor, beckoning them all through. Jackie immediately leapt up, with Brooke and Vanessa following behind her. Crystal was still on the phone.

“Hi Bob, yeah, Nicky is kind of reluctant to do that so we’re just going to stick with the line we’ve been given.”

As Brooke passed by her, she could hear the muffled yell of a woman at the end of her tether on the phone.

“ _Well this is the line I’m giving you! You tell her that-_ ”

No more could be heard of Bob’s shouting as Brooke made her way into the control room, with a quick “good luck” thrown Jackie’s way as she stepped into the studio behind a rattled-looking Nicky. Through the soundproof pane of glass she could see Milk chatting away into the microphone, Jackie sat at the huge wheely chair to his left and Nicky opposite them both. Brooke could see Crystal’s face through the tiny pane of glass at the studio door, frantically trying to get Nicky to come back presumably so that she could communicate whatever Betty had been yelling to her. Suddenly, Gigi stormed into the control room, irritation all over her face. 

“Everything okay on your end, Gigi?” Brooke smiled pleasantly, revelling in the death glare that was sent her way in return.

“Fine, thank you Brooke. All Nicky is concerned about is making your boss look like the laughing stock she is,” Gigi snapped back smugly. Brooke could only laugh in reply.

“If I were you, I’d be a bit more worried about your boss actually knowing what’s going on in this country instead of looking like an A-level politics student that just entered an exam room and forgot to revise. But y’know. You do you,” she shrugged nonchalantly, her smile becoming even bigger when she realised that Gigi had absolutely no comeback. Casting a quick glance to Vanessa, she was surprised to find her already smiling her way. Brooke gave a timid smile back. 

Timid. That was a word Brooke never thought she’d be using to describe herself, but then so often being around Vanessa fucked up her own self-expectations. Her kind, gentle nature always seemed to throw Brooke off a bit, softening her personality. Although did she really need that if she wanted to get anywhere in the world of politics? This job was her life, it always had been. Perhaps that was only the case because she’d never had any alternative. 

Brooke scrunched her face up, chasing those particular thoughts away. This was neither the time nor the place. 

Crystal suddenly came scrambling through the control room door, earning a steely glare from Ganja as she pulled on an enormous pair of headphones. Gigi cast her colleague a questioning gaze.

“Bob’s gone nuts. She wants Nicky to completely agree with Jackie on everything. The latest polls came in and apparently the majority were in favour of more refugees. Bob doesn’t want the party being hated more than they already are so she wants Nicky to go with public opinion.”

“Who the fuck did they poll to get that kind of response? Ugh, no, I don’t even want to know. What’s Nicky doing?”

“Ignoring her. Which got me an earful of tinnitus from Bob but Nicky’s put her foot down, and you know what she’s like,” Crystal rolled her eyes. As she sighed, Brooke noticed Gigi smiling sympathetically at her and sliding an arm around her waist in a half-hug. Brooke was intrigued. Crystal and Gigi had always been close, that was obvious to anyone that saw them. One was never without the other and when they were together they were always joining pinkies or linking arms or whispering to each other secretively. Brooke thought about what Vanessa had said to her about being blind to when two people have feelings for each other. Maybe this had been what she’d meant? A sudden thought struck Brooke. There was a correlation between that moment and when Vanessa had started being weird with her. Why was that? What had happened then that had offended her so much? 

Just then she was distracted by Vanessa pulling on her shirt sleeve, and therefore unable to think any more about it.

“It’s starting,” she muttered, not once turning her gaze from the studio where Milk had begun introducing the topic. 

“…and in the wake of Morgan McMichaels announcing that Scotland is to take twenty thousand new refugees over the next five years, we’re asking; should the rest of the UK be following in her footsteps? Discussing this with me today is Jackie Cox, Minister for Social Affairs and Citizenship-”

“Hi Milk, good to be here,” Jackie smiled easily, seemingly quite comfortable with the situation. 

“-and the Right Honourable Nicky Doll MP, Shadow Minister,” he continued, gesturing to Nicky. Nicky sort of spluttered a hello. 

“She don’t really look…comfortable, does she?” Vanessa whispered with intrigue. “Nicky, I mean.”

“Nope. But that’s good news for us,” Brooke replied, earning a smile from Vanessa which made her hopeful that she was in a better mood. Milk was still talking.

“…and of course, you can get involved in the debate as well on Twitter, at Radio Five Live or using the hashtag ‘gotmilk’.”

“Jesus. This is today’s journalistic standard. _Hashtag ‘gotmilk’_ ,” Brooke snorted, earning herself a glare from Gigi and Crystal. 

“So, Nicky Doll,” Milk was continuing, smiling lazily at the shadow minister. “What do you think? Should we be welcoming more refugees to the UK?” 

A beat of silence. “Um, well, it’s a very good question and one that doesn’t necessarily have a yes or no answer but a list of pros and cons. It’s one of these situations where both the pros and the cons must be lined up together, and, um, from there it should be examined which the longer list is, the pros or the, um, cons. Now, of course there are many pros, however in the UK-”

“Fucking hell, Nicky, answer the question,” Gigi muttered under her breath, as Crystal shook her head disparagingly. 

Nicky seemed to have finally reached the end of her point, whatever the hell it was, as Jackie had begun speaking. 

“Well, I think I’d have to answer that same question in much fewer words than Nicky did and say yes, I think this country should be welcoming many more refugees, and I think Morgan McMichaels has done a brilliant thing today in announcing these plans for Scotland. I think they’re definitely going to see much more of an economic benefit, much more diversity, a much more enriched culture, and certainly a more tolerant society.”

“Jackie, you mentioned the economic benefit- could you expand a little on that?” Milk questioned.

“Certainly. Well, I think it’s easy to forget that the refugees that are seeking to move over here aren’t this huge unskilled mass of people. Many of them will have been in work or education before their lives got turned upside down. In this case, this provides a vast pool of skilled workers who can set up businesses, contribute to established businesses, and generally help the economy.”

Nicky’s face looked as if Jackie may as well have taken a shit on the desk in front of her. Milk seemed to pick up on this.

“Nicky Doll- do you agree?”

“No, I don’t agree, Milk, and to be honest I don’t think Jackie really knows what she’s talking about. You think-” Nicky turned to Jackie. “-that more jobs are going to be _created_ by these people coming over here, when we’re currently on our way out of a recession and unemployment is at its highest in years, thanks to your party. If these people are as skilled as you say it’s going to mean that our own citizens are out of work, struggling to provide for families, and potentially even becoming homeless.”

Jackie sat and listened to Nicky’s tirade, finally smiling and stretching out in her chair as if she was in her family home and not a radio studio. “First of all, you weren’t even aware of the fact that Scotland was going to welcome these refugees until you arrived at this studio half an hour ago, so don’t talk to me about knowing what I’m talking about when I have been campaigning for the safety of refugees since I was at university. Second of all-”

Brooke actually punched the air. Jackie was killing it, and Nicky was coming across just plain jittery. She turned to Vanessa excitedly but found her concentrating on what Jackie was saying in the studio. Too hyped to listen properly, Brooke peered over Ganja’s shoulder at the Five Live twitter feed. 

_Jackie is bae!!!! Love her!!!!! #gotmilk_

_lmao Nicky who #gotmilk_

_#gotmilk who is this lefty loony theyv got on this week? REFUGEES OUT THIS IS ARE COUNTRY #EDL #KNIGHTSTEMPLAR #PAULGOLDINGFORPM_

_#gotmilk interesting points from both sides but Nicky is winning for me atm_

_#gotmilk U TELL EM MOM @JackieCoxMP_

A mixed bag, but Brooke would take what the party could get. She became aware that Jackie was still talking. 

“…and finally, honestly? If refugees are as unskilled as you say but at the same time can still _steal your job_? You probably weren’t really that good at it in the first place.”

Brooke almost yelped when she felt an excited grab at her wrist. Looking sharply to her left she saw Vanessa beaming with pride at Jackie, who was now lazing back in her chair like a satisfied cat. Seemingly realising where she was, or what she’d done, or exactly whose wrist she was grabbing, Vanessa suddenly dropped her hand back to her side, looking up at Brooke meekly. 

“Sorry,” she muttered, her cheeks flushing a little pink before returning her gaze back to the ground.

Deciding this might be the only possible available moment of the day where she would be able to build a bridge with Vanessa, Brooke turned slightly to face her. “Hey, ‘Ness? Once this is over, do you think we could maybe-”

She was cut short by a vibration from her pocket and a life-ruining generic iPhone ringtone ringing out into the studio. Ganja spun around in her chair with such a force that it almost spun through the glass into the studio. 

“OUT. NOW. NO PHONES!”

Sighing in irritation, Brooke stormed outside, pulling her phone out of her pocket. Bianca.

“Hello?”

“I had no idea the BBC were hosting a barbecue, are you having fun?”

Taking the phone away from her ear and double-checking the caller ID, Brooke returned to the call in confusion. “What?!”

“Well it’s just all I’m hearing on the radio is Nicky Doll being absolutely roasted.”

Rolling her eyes a little, Brooke held in an irritated hiss. “And you phoned to tell me this why exactly?”

“Hey! Stick that attitude far up your ass, bitch!” Bianca immediately snapped back, all joviality gone from her voice. Brooke winced a little. “I wasn’t phoning you for the express purpose of making jokes, does it look like this government is being policed by Frankie Boyle to you?!”

Brooke wanted to reply that sometimes it did with the amount that Bianca swore, but she thought better of it. “So why did you phone me then?”

“As great as Jackie’s doing, she needs more figures. A lot of this is just coming across as her own opinion, she needs stuff to back it up or everything she’s saying is just going to sound unsubstantiated.”

Brooke shrugged, not completely disagreeing with Bianca. Jackie’s style of debate hadn’t really changed since uni and her years at the stock exchange really showed. She concluded that maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to supply Jackie with more information.

“Right. I’ll try and communicate that to her, Bianca, but it’s a bit difficult when there’s a massive pane of soundproof fucking glass between me and my boss. “

“Drop that attitude or I’ll dropkick you into the Thames! Get it done!” Bianca yelled down the phone, her voice gone immediately after, indicating that she had hung up. 

Brooke internally bemoaned Bianca’s erratic mood swings as she headed back into the control room, Ganja giving her a sour look as she returned to her place beside Vanessa. Nicky was currently rabbiting on about how immigration appeared to spell the end for Britain, whilst Jackie was sitting back in her chair smugly. 

“What’d Bianca want?” Vanessa asked, turning to Brooke as she saw her arrive.

“You got a pen?”

Vanessa snorted a laugh. “I’m a political fuckin’ advisor, of course I got a pen.”

“Right, of course, sorry. We need to give Jackie more stats, Bianca’s saying she needs more evidence to back herself up.”

Nodding, Vanessa produced her notebook and pen. Brooke began Googling as many facts and figures she could find, dictating them to Vanessa as she scribbled them down frantically. They worked well as a team, Brooke’s knack for finding exactly what they needed marrying up well with Vanessa’s note-taking skills. It was nice to be doing something in harmony after she’d been funny with her for a while. When they’d got a good side of A4, Vanessa smiled brightly at Brooke as she ripped out the lined piece of paper, held it out to her, and then made her hand into a fist. 

“Bump it, bitch. Nice work,” she shrugged easily at her, and Brooke couldn’t even conceal the smile she returned as she did what Vanessa had ordered her to. Unable to linger on the moment for too long, though, Brooke raced through to the studio with the paper in her hand, ready to sneak in and hand the figures to Jackie. She was halfway through a point when Brooke came in, and she trailed off a little as Brooke tried to sneak her the piece of paper while Milk simultaneously tried his best to silently shoo her out of the room. Before Brooke could reach Jackie, though, she felt the piece of paper being yanked out of her hand by Nicky. Brooke’s face fell as Nicky gave her a saccharine sweet smile and mouthed her a “thank you”. Brooke looked through the glass at Vanessa who was gesticulating at her in equal parts disbelief and dismay and Jackie’s face held much the same expression. Exasperated at having been outmaneuvered, Brooke returned to the room she’d been in previously.

“Aw, thanks for all those stats, Brooke Lynn!” Gigi sing-songed at her as she entered the room. 

“Yeah, that was really kind of you! Thanks for helping Nicky take your boss down!” Crystal joined in. Vanessa leapt in before Brooke even had a chance to speak. 

“Hey, Tweedle Dumb and Dumber! Shut the hell up!”

Gigi narrowed her eyes at her. “Woah, don’t be so rude! It’s just politics, we’re the ones being professionals. Have some class, Jesus.”

“Ugh, God. It’s like being trapped in a girls’ high school locker room,” Brooke shook her head, running her hands down her face in exasperation. Ignoring the two opposition members, she turned to Vanessa and put an arm around her in an attempt to calm her down. It seemed to work, and Vanessa fell silent, choosing not to respond to the girls opposite. 

The debate rolled on, and Brooke hoped Jackie would stay on top.

***

Brooke was in the green room getting a coffee when it all began going south.

She could still hear the debate through the speakers and from how it sounded, they were in the process of taking some phone calls and texts from the public. Always a great idea, thought Brooke sarcastically. The public could always be trusted to have really great and sound opinions. 

Nicky seemed to be answering someone’s phone call, her jitteriness now clearly back. The person who’d asked the question hadn’t seemed too happy from what Brooke had heard over the sound of the boiling water and the hiss of the coffee machine. Still, Nicky seemed to have done her best to answer whatever the question was, and now they were taking a phone call from;

“George in Tottenham Hale, let’s hear from you. I think you have a question for Jackie, is that right?” Milk’s voice came through the small speakers. What followed was a deep Ugandan voice, slightly tinged by what was clearly a couple of years in London. 

“Yes, my question is for Jackie. It is a bit surprising to me to hear you are supportive of refugees.”

Brooke began to feel a sense of dread creeping over her. What the hell was coming next? She reached into her bag for her phone, getting the horrible feeling that she might be needing it within the next few minutes. George continued on.

“I came to this country two years ago, I got a job with a cleaning company. We do big contracts and things, for big companies. And the government hired us to do the offices at Richmond Terrace and the new offices of Jackie’s department.”

Suddenly, a harsh vibration from Brooke’s phone made her heart beat out of her chest. A text from Bianca. 

_B: THERE IS A GLACIER OF SHIT ABOUT TO SINK US. I’M COMING TO FIVE LIVE. BE PREPARED._

If Brooke was filled with horror before, then this only made her heart drop out of her stomach. As George carried on, Brooke had to fight the urge to spew her insides out onto the green room floor.

“So we are working for the government, Jackie’s government, and she is here talking about the economic benefits of immigration but they are paying us the very minimum wage for five hours of work on the nightshift every day. So why does her government support this? It is cheap labour, and she is paying the company that supports our exploitation. I do not understand her stance today.”

A beat of silence was somewhat deafening on the speakers of the green room. 

“Jackie Cox, how do you respond to that?” Milk spoke, obviously trying to inject some noise into the silence. 

“Well. Um, that’s obviously a very serious accusation, and one which we will be working hard to-”

Brooke never got to hear what Jackie would be working hard to do, as suddenly from the other end of the corridor came a dull yet frantic rumbling of high heels against a carpeted floor. Vanessa was a blur past the glass of the green room until she came hurtling through its door, facing Brooke with more urgency than she’d shown in a long time. 

“We need to sort this out. This is a shitshow,” she gasped, hair all over her face. “You heard all that, right?”

“Yeah. Bianca’s on her way over. Fuck. What do we do?”

Vanessa blinked at Brooke a little. “Why’re you askin’ me, Mary? I don’t have any more of a plan than you do. We gotta firefight this one together.”

“Yeah, okay. We’re good together,” Brooke nodded in agreement, the sentence out before she could realise what she’d said. She quickly shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment. “That’s not...I mean. Like, working together. We’re good at working together.”

Brooke could have sworn she saw Vanessa blush as she nodded at her understandingly, but she was too focussed on sorting out the current situation at hand than reading any deeper into things. Her brain was working fast and after a brief pause to think she had come up with something. 

“Right. Make sure that Nina and the girls know the line. Of course, we don’t actually know what the line _is_ because Bianca’s not here yet but just tell them that we’re looking into it, stress Jackie’s commitment to fair employment for refugees and migrants and that this doesn’t affect her standing or the validity of her opinions. Should we make a donation to someplace?”

“Uh, that don’t seem like the best idea. If the press got hold of it they could say it was just a reactionary measure. An’ the press would be likely to get hold of it, I mean, we’re probably gonna be under scrutiny for about a fortnight at least,” Vanessa offered, biting her lip nervously. 

“Good point,” Brooke nodded, her heart swelling a little at how well they were working together already as Vanessa began typing a message, presumably to Nina. Maybe Vanessa had forgiven her for whatever she’d apparently done already. Tearing a hand through her hair, Brooke had to remind herself to focus on the matter at hand. “Okay, no donations. In the meantime let’s maybe try to get some information about this guy, see if there’s anything we can use against him, anything that makes his stance void.”

Vanessa stopped typing suddenly, looking up at Brooke with concern in her eyes. “Brooke Lynn that’s…that’s smearing.”

“Yeah, and?”

“That’s Bianca’s job. We don’t really do that unless it’s under her orders. You got any idea the shit you could get into if it got out that you instigated somethin’ like this?” Vanessa mumbled, panic tinging her voice as her thumbs hovered over her phone screen. Pausing for a second to think it through, Brooke could faintly hear Nicky’s smug voice laying into Jackie about what a hypocrite she was. That made her decision for her. 

“We’re doing it. If it gets out, I’ll take the hit,” Brooke said simply. Vanessa looked momentarily as if she’d just been shot through the stomach, but dutifully she continued to type. 

“Okay, so we’re goin’ with smear campaign and promote Jackie. Am I sendin’ this?” she sucked in a breath of air through her teeth. Brooke gave a curt nod and with that, Vanessa’s thumb hit a single button on her phone. 

“God, it’s sent. Okay. Now what do we do?” she asked, fear written across her face. “Should one of us go back to the control room and keep listenin’ to see if anything develops?”

“Right. You do that. I’ll let you know when Bianca gets here. Hopefully she’ll have a way to help,” Brooke reasoned. Vanessa smiled hesitantly, making to turn and leave for the studio. Seeing the worry on her face Brooke reached out and gently touched her arm. The softness of the action surprised both of them, and Brooke drew her hand back quickly. 

“Don’t worry. It’ll all be fine. We’ve got this,” she finally said, managing to muster a confident smile from somewhere. To her shock, Vanessa fixed her with the most genuine smile she’d seen from her in weeks.

“I know we will. Like you said...we’re good together,” she replied with a grin and a wink before rushing out of the green room, leaving Brooke at peak confusion.

The ten minutes before Bianca arrived consisted firstly of Googling. There wasn’t much that Brooke had to go on, other than “George from Tottenham Hale”, but with the right keywords she’d managed to find a second name, which she immediately forwarded to Nina. She wasn’t sure how they were all doing back at the department. She was a little afraid to ask. 

When Bianca arrived, she knew about it. Along the corridor Brooke heard the thumping of a pair of very distinctive heels and she could tell immediately that Bianca was there. Standing up quickly and preparing herself for an almighty telling-off, Brooke tensed up as Bianca entered the green room, dressed in a tailored red suit and giving her a look that could’ve frozen lava. 

“Where’s the tiny loud one?” Bianca asked dryly, setting down her Mulberry bag on the small glass coffee table and looking Brooke dead in the eye. 

“She’s in the studio keeping tabs on things.”

“Well go get her! She’s fuck all use to me in there.”

Holding in a massive sigh, Brooke trotted along to the studio. She hoped Bianca wouldn’t hate the strategy they’d both come up with but the main thing was, Brooke reminded herself, at least Bianca was here now. If anyone could get this mess back in order then it would be her. 

Brooke didn’t even have to say anything to Vanessa as she stuck her head through the door of the control room. She immediately came running out and they both walked in silence down the corridor to meet Bianca. When they got to the green room she was sitting quite menacingly on the sofa, and had taken her suit jacket off and flung it over its headrest. She meant business.

“Right, any bright ideas from either of you about how to fix this fucking abomination? Because I’d love to hear them,” she ordered, as Vanessa and Brooke stood in front of her like two disgraced schoolchildren. 

Vanessa began explaining. “Well, we thought that the line should be that this don’t undermine Jackie at all, she’s lookin’ into it, an’ delivering fair employment opportunities for migrants is still one of her top priorities.”

Bianca seemed to relax only slightly. “That’s not bad. Good work, Vanessa.”

“Actually it was mainly Brooke Lynn’s idea,” Vanessa said quietly, Brooke raising her head to meet Bianca’s eyes. Bianca’s cold stare didn’t seem to have that icy edge anymore, but she supposed that hoping for praise was pushing things a bit far.

“Okay. Anything else?”

“We…said to comms to dig for intel on the guy that phoned in- anythin’ we could use against him, anythin’ we could put about, stuff like that,” Vanessa said a little hesitantly. 

Bianca’s glare darkened. “That’s fucking smearing! You both know that! That falls under my purview, I do the smearing, you guys get the information to make it happen. Do you have any idea the fucking river of shit you’re going to have to stay afloat in if it gets out that you’re trying to run a smear campaign against this fucking individual? That’s going to look suspect as fuck!” 

Brooke winced. “It was totally my idea, Bianca. Vanessa raised all the points you just made but we didn’t have much time to act and we had to do something.”

“Well here’s something to do next time. Use your fucking brain cells,” Bianca hissed, standing up from the sofa and giving Brooke a look that could wilt flowers. “Have we put anything out about this man yet?”

“Nah, that’s for sure. Last time I spoke to Nina they hadn’t found anythin’ on him yet. Brooke found his second name but that’s all we got,” Vanessa confirmed, her tone urgent as she addressed Bianca. Brooke suddenly felt a vibration from her phone. Glancing at it, a text had popped up on her screen. 

“Jan’s just told me she got the name of his cleaning company. Maybe our tactic should be to smear them instead? Expose them for their poor wages?” Brooke suggested in the vague hope that Bianca would agree. Instead, she frowned and shook her head rapidly. 

“Nobody is smearing anyone or anything until I give the green light, tell Jan that for starters. Jesus, right. See if they can get more information about the company. Find out its boss, see if they’re hiding a lovechild in a fucking cupboard anywhere. Until then, we do nothing,” Bianca sighed deeply, seemingly much more relaxed now she was in control of the situation again. Brooke did as she was told and began messaging Jan. 

In the few minutes that followed there was a flurry of activity in the studios. Crystal, Gigi and Nicky sprinted down the corridor, with a yell from Nicky questioning why Bob was arriving. Before Brooke could even react to the information that the opposition’s spin doctor was on her way, Jackie appeared in the green room looking visibly shaken. 

“I didn’t...I didn’t know anything about this. I don’t know what the hell’s going on,” she babbled, looking frantically from Brooke, then Vanessa, and finally Bianca.

Clearly sympathetic towards her boss, Vanessa turned to Jackie and put her hands on her shoulders reassuringly. “It’s okay, Jackie. We got this. In the meantime, try an’ keep pushing that new policy of yours. The housing one for refugees.”

“But-”

“I know we ain’t got much yet,” Vanessa shook her head. “But it’s the best we got at the moment, an’ you gotta redeem yourself. Just keep banging on about it until we can get something to cool this situation down.” 

“We’ve got five minutes til we need to be back in. I need to- I need to speak to Jan,” Jackie stammered, worry thickly coating every word she spoke. Bianca and Vanessa shared an odd look.

“Why Jan?” Bianca asked swiftly, her eyes questioning. Jackie’s face suddenly drained of all its colour, the woman clearly void of an excuse. Brooke suddenly felt like she had to step in.

“Jan’s the only advisor left in the department right now. She’ll give Jackie a perspective that we maybe haven’t thought about.”

Silently, Brooke handed Jackie her phone, Jackie’s hands shaking as she took it from her. As Jackie left the room, she shot Brooke a look of gratitude. Bianca gave her a side glance as she disappeared down the corridor. 

“Okay you two, keep digging. I’m going to make a few phone calls,” she said decisively, rising from her position on the sofa and leaving the room. Brooke rolled her eyes a little. As long as Jackie was speaking to Jan, she couldn’t really do anything. She began thinking about the three members of the opposition. 

“Did I hear right earlier? When those three ran past. Did they say that Bob was coming in?” Brooke asked Vanessa softly. Vanessa furrowed her brow in thought.

“That’s weird. If their spin doctor’s comin’ in...they gotta know something we don’t. Something must be goin’ on with them too,” she said slowly, realisation dawning on her. “Holy shit. They must be worried that we’re diggin’ into this. Brooke Lynn, they’re involved in some way!”

Brooke’s heart leapt as Vanessa began bouncing on her own seat excitedly. “We just gotta figure out what it is they’re so worried about.”

About a minute later the three girls from the opposing party jogged past the clear glass of the green room again. Jackie raced back into the room behind them and chucked Brooke her phone back. 

“Thanks Brooke. I’ve got about a minute to get back. You’ve got a text from Yvie, by the way,” she said quickly, out of breath as she quickly ran back to the studio. A little confused, and more than a little disoriented at the pace at which things were moving, Brooke opened up the text wordlessly. She could see from the outset that something was attached to it.

_Y: OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

A screenshot of a text conversation. When Brooke hit her thumb against the screen, the image became clearer- a conversation between Yvie and Akeria, except only Akeria had sent anything.

_A: Holy shit girl!!! The guy on the radio- I thought I knew his voice and then it clicked! He cleans for us as well! George comes in on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and does the shadow offices. Bob & co are shitting themselves!! She’s just left for the studios to firefight in case anything goes down!! I’m going to need a strong fuckin drink tonight I’ll tell u that for nothing xo_

“Shit!” Brooke exclaimed involuntarily, prompting Vanessa to crane her neck and read the text over Brooke’s shoulder. “That’s it. We’ve got them. The same company cleans the shadow offices. That’s why they were all running around the studio like chickens with their dicks cut off. We need to get Bianca!”

Vanessa gave a little squeal, almost tripping over herself as she sped out of the green room to find the spin doctor. Brooke was experiencing a sort of adrenaline rush. It was stressful at times, but this was what she loved the absolute most about this job; there was no better feeling than knowing you had the upper hand over the other party.

Bianca suddenly came storming in with Vanessa, her face hard as marble, not quite seeming as overjoyed with their finding as Brooke had been. Wordlessly, she held out an open palm in front of Brooke. 

“Let’s see.”

Obediently, Brooke handed her her phone, still open on the screenshot of Akeria’s text. She watched as Bianca’s huge owl eyes darted across the screen, then as she almost threw the phone back into Brooke’s possession. As she turned on her heel, she barked a “follow me” to no-one in particular. After sharing a quick glance, Vanessa and Brooke followed after her as she charged full speed ahead towards the control room. Bursting through its door, Bianca instantly rounded on Gigi, who looked as if she’d just come into contact with a ghost. Clearly she hadn’t encountered Bianca since she leaked the information about Jackie’s car crash to Nicky and by the looks of it she was frantically attempting to make peace with the fact that her death was imminent. She opened her mouth in an attempt to say or do something but Bianca got there first.

“Phone,” she said calmly, holding out her open hand almost as a prompt. As Gigi’s expression took on one of bemusement, Bianca simply followed her one word up with another, firmer and with an edge. “Now. You owe me.”

Gigi began scrambling to get her phone from her bag. As Crystal watched the exchange with nothing less than pure fear in her eyes Ganja turned around in her chair, annoyance painted all over her face. 

“‘Scuse me, what in the hell do you think you’re-”

“You turn the fuck back around in that chair and just concentrate on doing your job or I will loop my fingers round those fucking metal hula hoops stapled into your ears and do a Miss Trunchbull hammer throw on you, Amanda fucking Thripp!” Bianca snapped without missing a single beat. Silently, as if she hadn’t quite yet processed the extent of Bianca’s wrath, the shocked producer swivelled back around. Near ripping the phone out of Gigi’s hand Bianca turned and left the control room, leading Brooke and Vanessa to the corridor outside. 

“Needed a phone that wasn’t ours so it couldn’t get traced back to us. Watch my moves,” Bianca said, near out of breath, presumably as a result of her heart hammering in her chest the same way Brooke’s was currently doing now. “What’s the number for texts to the studio?”

“08442,” Vanessa reeled off without missing a beat. Catching Brooke’s questioning look she gave her a quick, amused smile and explained. “I’ve been listenin’ to this goddamn debate for almost two hours now. I’m gonna hear that number in my fuckin’ sleep.”

Brooke watched curiously as Bianca started typing, thumbs going like mad against Gigi’s phone screen. Soon enough, she had a text waiting to be sent. 

_“Nicky is a hypocrite! The opposition also employs the same cleaning company as Jackie’s government and has them working more days! Know your facts before you start tearing others down! From Julie in Brighton.”_

Before Brooke could comment on Bianca’s chosen pseudonym, Bianca sent the text then went to Gigi’s sent items and deleted it from history. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

“And that’s how it’s done,” Bianca finally smiled at the two advisors, some semblance of relaxed even though frown lines were now engraved into her heavy foundation as a result of all the stressing she’d been doing for the past half hour or so. Brooke shot a relieved smile at Vanessa who sent one back her way and consequently made her heart melt. Heart still hammering in her chest, Brooke was about to compliment Bianca on her quick actions when a sudden voice from one end of the corridor made her jump. 

“How what’s done, Bianca? Stirring up a shitstorm for my party in the press which I’m now going to need to clean up?” 

It was a statuesque woman, some of her height coming from her impossibly tall black heels. She was dressed in a houndstooth ensemble, a fitted dress and a matching blazer, and her impeccably styled afro sat neatly at her shoulders. Her dark skin contrasted with the bright makeup painted on her face, which was set into an unimpressed scowl. Bob had arrived, and now the two spin doctors were staring each other down menacingly.

“Roberta, so good to see you! Should we all pile into the control room? Your advisors are in there now. We could really get some sort of party atmosphere going, you know, get the streamers and balloons out,” Bianca smiled acridly. She looked as if she was making to add something, but Bob cut right in. 

“Don’t give me that shit. You’re here to cause trouble.”

Bianca glared at her. “You’re here to save your own ass, and I know exactly what you’re trying to cover up.”

Bob’s eyes shot from Bianca’s face to the phone in her hand, the cogs clearly turning in her brain. There was a beat of silence in which Brooke could hear Milk’s voice from the studio. 

“…and has them working more days, know your facts before you start tearing others down.’ Nicky Doll, quite a serious accusation there from Julie in Brighton-”

Bianca gave a small smile of satisfaction as Bob’s face darkened. She’d clearly worked out what Bianca had done. 

“Julie from Brighton? Is that what you’re going by these days?”

“I don’t know. It’s got a nice ring to it,” Bianca shrugged, whipping her head round quickly as the door to the control room swung open and Gigi and Crystal flew out. 

“Bob, we didn’t think it would get out as fast as it did,” Crystal began, her eyes wide with panic as she addressed the spin doctor. Bianca nonchalantly handed Gigi her phone back. Guiltily and silently, Gigi slid it back into her bag, at once knowing full well who had been behind the text exposing Nicky. Completely oblivious to the exchange, Bob addressed Crystal calmly. 

“It’s under control. Just go back in and make sure Nicky doesn’t choke on her own tongue or some shit like that. I’ve got business out here to attend to,” she said forebodingly. Crystal cast a side glance at Brooke before slinking back into the control room, Gigi following behind her like a disgraced puppy. The door swung shut behind the two advisors. At once business-like again, Bob took one large step towards Bianca. 

“You know what would go down horribly on your end? If I go to the press about the prostitutes that lovely John from the Ministry of Justice has been renting out like fuckin’ Blockbuster DVDs every Saturday night. I feel like that wouldn’t go down too well, do you, Bianca?”

“A man taking his sister out for dinner on a weekly basis- yes, his sister!- is actually a lovely wholesome story that I’m sure the press would consider a non-event. What wouldn’t be considered a non-event is your not-so-lovely Anthony from your education department getting a bit too enthusiastic slapping his wife about, fucking gave her a black eye?”

Bob bristled as Vanessa’s expression grew horrified. “That was a domestic accident, Bianca, and you know it.”

“Domestic accident, oh what, because he’s got hands the size of fucking flatpack wardrobes?” Bianca shot back incredulously. 

“Yes, a domestic accident! What about Jade Jolie’s domestic accident, the one she got from sleeping around a lil’ too much over at Richmond Terrace? Three potential Dads, but none of them her actual fuckin’ husband, I reckon that would be a bit of a PR disaster for your party!”

“It wouldn’t be a PR disaster because- that story is a fucking crock of shit that you just made up!” Bianca laughed, rolling her eyes. Brooke was in awe. It was as if the two spin doctors had quite forgotten she and Vanessa were both there and now they were caught in the crossfire of some form of smear war. “However, I have a photo that I can get blown up to canvas size of your shadow defence minister coming out of the toilets at Nobu with his nose covered in cocaine! What’s your defence to that going to be, eh? ‘Oh well you know what Nigel’s like with flour, he’s just a really keen baker!’ ” 

“Well I have tweets from 2009 that I can take down to Snappy Snaps and get blown up to fuckin’ charity cheque size from the account of your very white, very caucasian foreign secretary, except he wouldn’t be the foreign secretary all that much longer judging by the incredibly unironic use of the N word like punctuation in every 140 characters he types!”

Bianca took a deep breath through her nose, as if trying to calm herself down. She looked Bob dead in the eye before delivering her next blow. “Your party’s been getting a lot of positive coverage by the BBC recently, does that have anything to do with the new journalist, you know, the tiny pale one with the blonde hair? I’ve heard stories of you skulking around certain nightclubs with her recently, Bob, and I never really thought that was your scene? Or am I wrong?” 

“DON’T FUCKING-” Bob raised her voice very suddenly as she momentarily forgot where she was, Bianca clearly having hit a nerve. Darting her eyes from Vanessa to Brooke, Bob gave Bianca a sheepish glance, who in turn was looking at her as if she’d just won a third world war. Bob took one very laborious breath. 

“Look,” she began, her voice much quieter. “How about we both issue a statement, saying that neither of our girls were in full possession of the facts. But both parties are in the process of employing a new company, and we’re going to be focusing on our stance towards a fairer working wage in the coming weeks.”

Respect seemingly regained, Bianca seemed to become less tense. “Hmph. Carry on like that and I might not find you so grossly fucking reprehensible.” 

Sniffing and then giving a little nod, Bob let go of a breath she had been holding. As the atmosphere quietened Brooke became aware of Milk’s theme song playing, signalling the end of the programme. The studio door opened and out emerged a wearied-looking Dan Donigan, a Nicky with a face like thunder, and a Jackie that looked as if she’d been put through a wash and dry cycle. Ignoring Bianca, Brooke and Vanessa, she simply turned and walked towards the lifts.

The only thing she said into the echoing of the corridor was simply, “I need a damn bath, my vibrator, and fifty tramadol.”

_Same,_ was Brooke’s only thought, as she watched Crystal and Gigi skulk out of the control room and off down towards the exit. They seemed to be holding hands, and Brooke thought briefly about her theory from earlier.

“Well, all’s well that ends well,” Bianca raised her eyebrows sarcastically, making to head towards the green room. “Good work today, Vanessa. Brooke Lynn- step your shit up.”

Brooke wanted to kick herself as Bianca walked off towards the exit. Turning on her heel she slowly made her way towards the bathroom and couldn’t help but wonder if the sinks would be big enough to drown herself in after this totally shit day. 

***

As Brooke slung her bag over her right shoulder and winced slightly under its weight, she turned to leave the studios and jumped a little when she saw a silent Vanessa in the doorway of the green room. She looked a little embarrassed and slightly nervous about the fact she was there. The gentle hum of the omnipresent radio in the background and the quiet tick of the clock were the only things making noise.

“Hey,” Vanessa began nervously, smiling slightly as she took one small step forward. “Don’t listen to Bianca. That was real great. Y’know. What you did today.”

“What _we_ did,” Brooke corrected her, not really sure what tone to take so deciding to keep things neutral. For a moment Vanessa was silent, tucking a little strand of hair behind her ear awkwardly and exposing a hint of a pink blush. 

Finally she let out a huge sigh and began talking. “Look, Brooke Lynn, I’m real sorry for how I've been acting recently. I’ve been all quiet and distant for not really much good reason, an’ it ain’t right.”

The first reaction Brooke had was one of total, complete, all-encompassing relief. Vanessa wasn’t mad at her anymore, or perhaps had never been mad at her to begin with. She still wanted to be friends. Maybe even something more. Well, Brooke couldn’t really get her hopes up all that high but she was still ever-so-slightly euphoric that Vanessa was finally okay with her again and right now anything seemed possible. Noticing how Vanessa was still shyly waiting for her response, Brooke broke into a smile. 

“C’mere, baby,” she snorted, opening her arms in a hug. With relief washing over Vanessa’s face she stumbled into Brooke’s arms, hugging her tightly in a way that made Brooke’s heart swell. 

“I’m sorry,” she murmured again into Brooke’s chest, and Brooke privately thanked God for this little moment of reconciliation. 

“Come on, you know I don’t hold grudges. Well, not against my friends.”

“You have every right to, though.”

“Well, I’m not going to. So stop worrying,” Brooke muttered back, acutely aware that Vanessa hadn’t yet shifted from Brooke’s arms, seemingly not going anywhere anytime soon. “Are you alright though? Anything you want to talk about?”

Suddenly Vanessa became unstuck and pulled away from the hug, pulling the sleeves of her jumper over her hands self-consciously. “Yeah…no, I’m fine. I was just in my feelings for a lil’ bit, it was nothin’. Promise.”

As Vanessa laughed awkwardly, Brooke indulged her with a nod, still not entirely sure what she was referring to. She was happy, though, that Vanessa was more cheerful than she had been. Brooke decided to change the topic altogether.

“So, Alyssa’s next week. You still going?”

Vanessa smiled enthusiastically. “Damn right! Somebody gotta stop Jackie getting completely wrecked and vomiting on people’s shoes.”

“I think it’ll be fun. Running around after her and cleaning up her mess like she’s a toddler. How else would you want to spend a Saturday night?” 

Brooke delighted in the way Vanessa’s face scrunched up as she laughed, concluding that it was probably the thing she’d missed most of all about her. Glancing at the clock, she realised that it was past nine. 

“Listen, it’s getting late. Do you want to share a cab back? I think Jackie was so done with today she’s probably just taken the car,” she laughed a little, holding back some quip about Jan missing her after remembering yet again that their relationship wasn’t public knowledge just yet. It would be eventually, of course. Nothing could stay secret forever. Looking back at Vanessa and seeing her face all lit up in a smile, she reconsidered.

Maybe some things could. Her crush being one of them.

As Vanessa simply nodded twice in affirmation Brooke walked forward and, deciding to fuck platonic intent to one side, threaded an arm through Vanessa’s. She didn’t pull away and as the two made their way to the exit of the studios, Brooke realised she was leaving work without a heavy heart for the first time in over a fortnight. 


	5. Recess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before work stops for Christmas the girls have to navigate Baroness Edwards’ Ball, and Brooke continues to navigate her feelings for Vanessa.

Question: How do you draw attention from a terrifyingly massive fuck-up of an interview? 

Answer: Find redemption. 

Except nothing was happening in politics the week before Christmas Day, so there was no way to find this redemption. Brooke had already borne witness to the verbal colonic Bianca had thrown Jackie’s way in the wake of the Five Live interview, slapping down the day’s newspapers on her desk which had both Jackie and Nicky’s faces on their front looking incredibly sheepish. So Jackie had stayed low for the past week or so, the girls in the office flinging all their efforts behind her refugee housing policy ready for its release by New Year when Jackie, Jan and Jaida would make the trip over to Brussels. Nina had even been behind its horrifically cheesy slogan- _Jackie Cox will not put you in a box-_ which was sadly still the best efforts of a collective group of 5. 

Brooke was glad, though. Work had been incredibly high-octane of late and it was nice for the department to go into Christmas without feeling as if Bianca was throwing them at a hundred miles per hour towards a wall made of nails, broken glass and fire. She didn’t know it was possible for the comms team to be even more laid-back than they already were but apparently it was: Scarlet and Yvie were both on Amazon for each other’s Christmas presents while the other wasn’t looking, Nina was on the phone to Monét discussing Christmas turkeys, and Jaida and Adore weren’t even trying to disguise the fact they were watching Love Actually instead of doing their job. Occasionally an email would be sent or a phone would be picked up, but overall it was all quiet on the Westminster front. 

It was great to see Vanessa relaxed and happy again too. Their friendship was now completely mended and back to normal after the wobble of before, Vanessa now even seeming a little more warm and like her out-of-work self, although that was probably down to the fact it was so close to the holiday season. Every day she would come into work more excited for Christmas than the day before and her cheerfulness was beginning to rub off on Brooke, despite the fact that she didn’t really like the 25th of December all that much. The pressure to have the most perfect, happy day was more anxiety-inducing than fun and Brooke dreaded it more and more each year. But Vanessa managed to make her feel a bit better about it all and somehow her loud, off tune singing made Michael Buble that bit more bearable. 

Their work wasn’t completely over, however. There was still one tiny little hurdle the department had to jump before they could celebrate Christmas, and that was Alyssa Edwards’ charity ball at the Dorchester. Alyssa was a Baroness, extremely wealthy and a member of the House of Lords, and yet somehow she still seemed like a real, down-to-earth human being. Alyssa was well-renowned for using her money for good, setting up two childrens’ charities and using her wealth and notoriety to encourage everyone who was anyone in politics to donate to them. This ball was no exception and there would be a lot of big names attending. Brooke couldn’t help but feel a little excited. Darienne had never been extended an invite before and therefore neither had her advisors, but presumably Alyssa had seen something of worth in Jackie so this was the first year that Brooke had been invited to attend too. Sure, the whole night would really be about politics but she would rather be business networking surrounded by champagne and canapes than the same old scenery of the office. 

It was for that reason that Brooke arrived to work on the Friday morning all bubbly and excited for the evening ahead. It had been ages since she’d had the chance to dress up and admittedly she was looking forward to a night of mingling and experiencing how the other half lived. Walking from the lift to the corridor and into Dosac’s offices, she felt there was a similar sort of buzz in the air. Even the comms team were chatting excitedly.

“Morning, ladies!” Brooke greeted the office, met with a couple of yells back. As she flung her bag and coat down on her desk she spotted Vanessa as she shot across the office on her wheely chair, making a beeline for where Brooke stood. 

“Brooke Lynn, oh my God! I’m so damn excited for tonight, I’ve been looking forward to it since literally forever,” she babbled, speaking at about seventy miles an hour and causing Brooke to simply blink at her with both amusement and affection. 

“Really? You don’t sound all that bothered,” she joked, flinching as Vanessa walloped her on the arm. 

“Hey, lemme have my moment! It’s a Baroness Edwards ball, Brooke. This is a big fuckin’ deal!” 

“Baroness Edwards. Girl, it’s Alyssa,” Brooke laughed at Vanessa’s formality. 

Vanessa looked up at her with one eyebrow raised, a look of disbelief on her face that Brooke noticed made her look cuter than ever. “I’m just bein’ polite. You met the woman? She told you it’s okay to call her by her first name?”

“No, but you’ve seen her interviews. The woman is crazy,” Brooke shrugged. Vanessa mirrored her body language, clearly concluding that Brooke was right. Alyssa was a little bit kooky and not by any means a stereotypical baroness; always joking and laughing in the House of Lords, acting as if every interviewer was her best friend, screeching and squawking and generally acting like a big joker. Many of her colleagues hated her but she was so well-loved by the public that there was never really anything they could say. In Brooke’s view Alyssa Edwards was the best argument against abolishing the House of Lords that they had. 

Turning her attention away from Vanessa, hard as it was, Brooke addressed the comms team who were still chattering like an excited flock of birds. 

“What’s got you guys so hyped, anyway? It’s not like Alyssa extended her invite to the comms teams.”

“Shut up, you elitist bitch!” Yvie rolled her eyes, throwing a pen at Brooke from halfway across the room. 

“If you must know,” Scarlet leaned over in her chair and batted her lashes. “Us and the civil service girls from the opposition are having our own little ball this evening.”

“Scarlet, stop calling it a ball,” Adore laughed loudly at her friend. Turning to address Brooke, she explained. “We’re getting dressed up, eating at Wahaca, drinking until we can’t see, and then going out.” 

“Wow, guys. Dream big,” Brooke said blankly, earning her a packet of staples, this time from Jaida. 

“It’s a ball because we’re ballers,” Scarlet said proudly, leaning back in her chair and receiving a disgusted glare from her girlfriend. 

“I’m breaking up with you,” Yvie said, in her own deadpan way.

Nina piped up from behind her own monitor. “I have to say, I’m a little bit jealous. Your evening is going to be far more fun than mine.”

“Nina, you’re getting to attend an Alyssa Edwards ball. Shut up,” Yvie griped at the senior press officer, Nina’s job title meaning she had bagged an invite too.

“Yeah, chile, I’ll take your invite,” Jaida offered playfully. 

“Jaida, I don’t mind swapping Nina for you,” Brooke quipped, laughing with Jaida as Nina tried to suppress a smile and failed. 

“I’d throw my post-its at you but I’d like the comms team to at least have some items of stationary left by the time Jackie arrives.”

“Shit!” Vanessa looked at the clock and shot up from her chair, realising she was late to meet her boss. It was too late, however, as just then Jackie came round the corner and into the offices with her two red briefcases in her hands and Jan just at her back. 

“Vanessa, I really would love to be met at the doors tomorrow. I mean, I am a cabinet minister, not a bag lady,” Jackie chastised her, Vanessa pulling a face as Jan sat down at her desk.

“Thanks for covering for me, girl,” Vanessa hissed sarcastically at her friend as she sat down. Jan sighed and shrugged apologetically.

“Sorry, ‘Ness. I was just running late,” she explained as she logged in to her computer. Vanessa rolled her eyes as she dragged her chair back over to her own desk and sat down on it. 

“You been late more than you been early these days. I love you Jan but I’m tellin’ you as a friend and a colleague, you need to get your head out your ass,” she continued, typing forcefully into her own keyboard. 

Brooke momentarily thought to herself that it wasn’t her own ass Jan needed to remove her head from. 

“I mean, what must Jackie think havin’ you come in late all the time?” Vanessa tutted. Just then, Jackie’s voice could be heard calling the girls through to the meeting room. 

“Well maybe we’re about to find out,” Jan drawled lazily, swinging her chair round and leading the way towards the room at the far end of the department with Brooke, Vanessa and Nina following behind her. 

As soon as Brooke entered the meeting room she could see Jackie sitting at the head of the table with a massive excited smile on her face. 

“Oh God, Jackie, not you too,” Nina sighed as she sat down. Jackie raised an eyebrow at her, her expression completely changing. 

“What’s that meant to mean?”

“Everyone’s pissing their pants for this charity ball but nobody’s actually seeing it for what it is, which is a massive money-making scheme for Alyssa Edwards’ businesses,” Nina sighed, crossing her legs lazily. Jan snorted. 

“They’re not businesses, Nina, they’re charities! They help kids.”

“Well, all I’m saying is that if Jackie ends up drunk and paying a thousand pounds for a Birkin bag at the auction don’t come crying to me.”

“There’s an auction?! Ooh!” Jackie gasped excitedly, her pitch rising about an octave. Rolling her eyes, Nina pointed her pen in Jackie’s direction. 

“Case and point.”

“They got poker and roulette tables too!” Vanessa chimed in, her excitement now reaching boiling point. Nina and Brooke shared an exasperated look. 

“Anyway,” Brooke cut in before any more of the meeting was spent on anything else off-topic. “Why are we here, exactly?”

“Right, well,” Jackie started, at once business-like again. “Bianca’s heading here in ten minutes for a meeting and I’m assuming it’s to brief me about tonight. So I want to be one step ahead and get in her good books again. Ladies, give me info.”

“Well I guess the main thing is that even though this night may be guising as recreational, it’s not. It’s all business,” Nina began as the other girls nodded. 

“We’ll introduce you to some big names, try an’ get them onside. Kimora Blac is very up-and-comin’, it’d be good to get in with her,” Vanessa mused, leaning on the table with her elbows. 

“Isn’t she just a Buzzfeed journalist? Do we really need Jackie’s coverage to be a listicle entitled ‘ _TWENTY REASONS WHY JACKIE COX IS #MOM #BAE #QUEEN’_?” Brooke cut in with a sneer. Vanessa frowned at her. 

“Hey, she might work for Buzzfeed but she’s good! Her articles are actually real interesting, an’ she’d be good with The Independent if she ever wanted to apply there. Her tweets always blow up too. She might come across as some airhead but she’s actually very sharp. We’ll get you talkin’,” Vanessa insisted to Jackie, Brooke shrugging and trusting Vanessa’s faith in the young journalist. 

“Anyone else?” Jackie asked hopefully. 

“We’ll get you chatting to Widow again. She seemed to like you last time and it’s good to keep up appearances,” Jan suggested, earning her a nod from both Vanessa and Nina. “We’ll try and introduce you to Raja Gemini too before she inevitably interviews you. She has a tendency to go in on Ministers she doesn’t see eye to eye with so it’d be good to make a first impression in a more informal environment.”

“God, no pressure,” Jackie exhaled loudly. 

“It’s a charity ball, yes, but that being said don’t spend mad amounts of money,” Nina advised. “Just stay away from any opportunity to spend. The fundraisers are for the rich kids and for the parties who can afford to be seen spending money. We’re the working people’s party, not the spending people’s party.”

“Oh come _on_ , it’s for charity! Would the media really object to me spending if it was in aid of poor little kids?” Jackie sighed, kicking her feet up onto the table in front of her. 

“Trust me, Jacks, it’s maybe not the best idea,” Vanessa reasoned. 

“Oh, and don’t be seen with a drink in your hand. You take one glass of free champagne and that’s it,” Brooke said, her mind suddenly filled with nightmarish images of Jackie vomiting on the red carpet for the world’s media to see. Jackie’s face instantly grew disappointed. Jan and the other girls laughed. 

“Come on, Brooke. Everyone’s going to be drinking!” she chuckled, leaning back in her chair. Brooke gave her a side glare. 

“Well, Jackie, do what you like. I’m not sold on it but we can’t control you,” she shrugged, throwing her hands up in defeat. 

“All right! Champagne for everyone, then,” Jackie cheered, Vanessa clapping excitedly in response. No more could be said, however, as a harsh voice rang out through the department and the unmistakable sound of stilettos on a carpeted floor came closer and closer to the meeting room. 

“No, I don’t give a rat’s ass that he’s saying no! Well just get it done, right? Or I’ll turn you into a human fucking plug socket. And I can do that, by the way, I took all three sciences to A level,” Bianca hurtled into her phone as she arrived before swiping swiftly across the screen, the conversation clearly over. Pocketing her phone, she then turned to address the room. “Okay, good morning ladies. I hope you’ve all had a good night’s rest because the information I am about to impart to you is probably the most important thing you’re gonna hear all day and I need you to retain it.”

Jackie leaned back in her chair, relaxed. “Bianca, it’s fine. These girls have briefed me already. The ball will be fine. It’ll be just like playing Sims, just...mash the schmooze button with every journalist I see.”

Bianca’s face immediately took on a sneer. “This…this is not about Alyssa Edwards’ fucking ball! I don’t care what you do at that as long as you’re not seen sniffing ket off of the foreign secretary’s balls.”

“Well there’s no danger of that.” Nina piped up, bristling a little. 

“What _is_ this about, then?” Brooke asked, suddenly intrigued. Bianca’s face did look very foreboding, as if she was about to tell them something that would make the fabric of reality split in two. Bianca took a quick look out of the glass-fronted office to see if anyone was hovering nearby. They weren’t. Seemingly satisfied, she leaned on the table and lowered her voice. 

“The Prime Minister has finally decided to do something about the refugee crisis.”

Jackie’s face lit up. “Oh, thank God! This is amazing, we’re fina-”

“Calm down,” Bianca shut Jackie down, lifting one hand up to pause her. “It’s not what you’d expect. He’s…well, within the next few years…he wants to take immigration out of government hands.”

There was a silence in the room. Brooke was completely confused. Vanessa was the first to speak.

“What so like…military control?”

“Privatisation.”

The mood in the room shifted considerably. Brooke and Jackie shared a glance. From what Brooke could gather, Jackie seemed tense. 

“This…” she began, then stopped. Her brow was furrowed, and she appeared to be deep in thought. “I don’t understand how this is going to work.”

Bianca leaned against the glass door. She seemed not 100% at ease with it all either, as if she was the bearer of bad news. “Well, it’s standard privatisation, you know how that works. The government offer a contract for border control. Companies make offers. Lowest offer wins. They control the borders and immigration is out of government hands.”

There was a beat of silence. Brooke watched as realisation dawned on Jan’s face. “This surely isn’t-”

“Yes, Jan. This is the PM’s legacy. He’s-”

There was suddenly a knock on the half-open glass door. As Brooke craned her neck she saw Adore hovering nervously. The room fell silent and she seemed to take that as a cue to take one tentative step inside. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” she said quietly. Then, as her eyes rested on Nina, she seemed to relax a little. “Nina, we’re getting some calls about Alyssa’s ball tonight? There’s rumours that security are going to be keeping Jackie and Nicky away from each other?”

Nina gave a biblical roll of her eyes. “Who is it that’s phoning?”

Adore pulled a face. “Uh...the Daily Mail?”

“Tell them to stick a goose up their arse,” Nina snapped back. With a hasty nod of her head, Adore retreated. All focus was back to Bianca, whose face had suddenly taken on a suspicious glare. 

“How long had she been there? Did she hear any of that?”

“Oh, Bianca, Jesus. She’s just a civil service puppet, don’t worry about her. Who you should be worried about is me,” Jackie’s tone was suddenly dark as she looked Bianca dead in the eye. Brooke was a little shocked, and judging by the panicked look she shared with Vanessa she wasn’t the only one. “Because I will be fighting this tooth and nail in parliament. This is not a good idea.”

“It’s sweet how you think this is up for debate. I came here to inform you of this because it will hit the press after New Year and I want you aware of the line which is obviously that this is the greatest fucking idea since sliced bread. Except it’s better than that, because as good things go sliced bread is a bit fucking shit. Just say it’s the best thing since cocaine and strippers,” Bianca ended flippantly. Jackie narrowed her eyes. 

“Bianca,” she began coldly, her voice shaking a little with anger. “I need you to understand that I am going to do everything in my power to ensure that this doesn’t go ahead.” 

Bianca lowered her voice and drew her brows together, her face snarling in a scowl. “And I need you to understand that it is your job to ensure that it _does_ go ahead. This is not a discussion, Jackie. ”

Seething, Jackie threw herself back in her chair, her head ricocheting off its headrest as if she was a crash test dummy. She folded her arms across her chest and her face looked deep in thought. Bianca ran a frustrated hand through her caramel waves and exhaled noisily, glad the conversation was over. 

“Well. That’ll be that then. I’ll see you lot this evening, you’ll find me at the bar drowning myself in amaretto and trying to pretend I’m interested in what Lord Huxby drones on at me.”

With a few muted goodbyes, Bianca was off again back through the department. As soon as she was out of earshot, Jackie instantly flew out of her seat. 

“What the _hell_ is the PM playing at?!” she yelled, pacing around the small space of office that wasn’t taken up by the huge table. “Privatisation? That’s meant to be Nicky’s mantra! I mean, what is this party turning into?!”

Nobody else in the room really knew what to say, least of all Brooke. It did seem a strange move from the Prime Minister and one that the public would surely pick up on. Jackie was still pacing, her entire aura one of rage. 

“Minister, would you like me to prepare a statement to put out when the announcement of the legacy goes through?” Nina asked hesitantly, looking with anxiety at Jackie as she did so. Jackie stopped pacing, waving a hand at Nina dismissively. 

“No, no thank you, Nina. I just need time to think, if everyone could maybe just give me some time on my own,” Jackie sighed, rubbing the back of her neck in agitation. “This is not happening. There is no way I’m letting the lives of immigrants get put in the hands of some company that’s just going to cut corners wherever it can. I just need to think of a way to oppose it without making too many waves.”

Brooke let out an incredulous snort which turned all the heads in the room her way. She was a little taken aback, then explained. “Sorry, Jackie, I just don’t know how you’re going to fight the Prime Minister’s legacy without making too many waves.”

Jackie paused, then shrugged and gave a little half-smile. “Well maybe I’ll just have to throw caution to the wind and create a whole damn tsunami.”

Giving her an amused smile, Brooke got up and dutifully made to leave, Vanessa and Nina following behind her. Brooke didn’t miss the way Jan hovered at the door as if to make sure Jackie didn’t want any company, but a reassuring glance from her girlfriend resulted in her leaving the room and shutting the glass door behind her. As they walked back to their desks, Vanessa huffed a huge sigh. 

“Well, that was a lot,” she said, raising her eyebrows a little.

“Yeah. I’m worried. I hope Jackie’s not going to do anything rash,” Jan frowned, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. Brooke gave her a sideways glance. 

“Come on, girl. She’ll be fine, she knows what she’s doing.”

Jan’s shoulders slumped a little. “I just wish I could talk to her.”

Brooke tensed a little, wondering if Vanessa would pick up on the implications of Jan’s statement. She didn’t seem to.

“Well, let’s just hope she’s outta her huff before Alyssa’s tonight. I don’t think the Baroness is gonna take kindly to Jackie if she’s in a massive mood. Ooh, speaking of Alyssa’s, bitch!” Vanessa beamed suddenly, an idea only just seeming to come to her. “Why don’t you guys come round to mine before we head out to the Dorchester? Then Jackie’s car won’t have to go to all our flats before arriving. We can get some fizz, take some selfies, get hyped. It’ll be cute!”

Brooke felt like she’d been shocked by a defibrillator. Why was she suddenly nervous? It was just spending time with friends, she’d done it before, but never in Vanessa’s flat. The suggestion of this new setting panicked Brooke a little, made everything feel a little more intimate. It shouldn’t have scared her so much. 

Swallowing her nerves, Brooke forced a smile on her face which she hoped made her look carefree and not pained. “Sounds good, yeah! I’m down.”

“Same! It’ll be fun,” Jan beamed, managing to sound ten times more relaxed than Brooke felt. Excitement painted on her face, Vanessa turned to the comms team. 

“Neens? Come to mine before Jackie picks us up? We’ll get fizz!” 

Nina leaned back in her chair and gave the three an amused smile. “It’s a lovely offer, Vanessa, but I think I’ll just get ready with a cup of tea, Nina Simone, and my lovely wife. Jackie can pick me up before yours. I’m staying off the bubbles this evening just in case I’m needed.”

“Yeah, who knows. There might be a political emergency where they need someone with an extensive knowledge of televised Poirot murder mysteries,” Brooke smirked, leaning back on her desk. Nina hollered a laugh and gave her the middle finger. Secretly though, Brooke was glad they’d have a guaranteed sober member of Dosac there this evening. She should probably make it two. Brooke was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts as Vanessa grabbed both her and Jan in an animated hug. 

“This is gonna be the best damn night _ever_!” she squealed, squeezing them both tightly before letting go. As she returned to her desk, Brooke walked back to her own in a slight daze. It didn’t make any sense for her to be nervous. Taking a deep breath, she tried to convince herself that there was nothing to get worked up about; tonight would just be a nice night with friends and there was no real scope for anything to go wrong. 

Casting an eye back up to the meeting room and seeing Jackie still deep in thought didn’t do anything to relax her.

*******

Brooke stood in front of the full-length mirror that had been crammed into one corner of her studio flat. Sighing and sucking her stomach in, she scrutinised herself ruthlessly. Her hair was good, that was a given. She’d barrel-curled it into huge waves then pinned it over one shoulder in a sort of Jessica Rabbit style. She knew it looked good if nothing else.

Her makeup was adequate at least. Anything that had gone wrong had been concealed over- one corner of her eye where her eyeliner had decided to backstab her now sported about 15 layers of the damn thing. She cursed herself for how basic she’d gone as she stared down her burnt gold smoky eye and nude lip. Casting an eye down the rest of her body, that was where the real insecurity began. She’d fallen in love with her dress when she bought it, but with every passing second the doubt in her mind grew. The satin emerald green dress with its cowl neck now seemed like a horrific choice, like some tacky graduation ball dress and not a smart gown meant for an incredibly opulent evening. Brooke grabbed her invite from her adjacent dressing table and read it over again. Was this dress black tie? What even was black tie? She didn’t wear a fucking tie!

Sighing, she acknowledged there wasn’t much she could do to change it now. Still, the apprehension and nerves were eating her up inside. She knew this was still basically work, a massive ass-kissing event to try and get Jackie networked, but Brooke also knew this meant she would get to spend an extensive length of time around both Vanessa and alcohol and she tried to avoid those situations as much as possible for fear of her stupid mouth opening and saying something she shouldn’t. Thinking back to her uni days, she gave a little shudder at the sheer extent of things she could blame on just that. 

She’d not been this nervous in a long time, in fact probably not since she started the job at Dosac all those years ago. She absolutely hated the feeling of not being able to control her palpitating heart, or her shallow breathing, or her pulse which was now thudding underneath her skin at the speed of a freight train. Anger was fine- she could generally channel that into something productive- and Brooke never allowed herself to get sad (or at least that’s what she’d tell everyone) but nerves were different. No amount of logical, motivational internal speeches would help. Sighing an incredibly shaky sigh, Brooke peered at her phone and checked the time. She’d left enough minutes to allow for traffic so that she would get to Vanessa’s bang on time, but now she was overthinking that too. If she was too early that would seem weirdly keen. If she was late she would seem rude. If she was on time it would seem like she’d overthought the situation, which she definitely wasn’t doing in any way at all. 

With a sort of gulp of breath, Brooke began dialling a taxi company to book, managing to speak to the operator despite the fact she felt her vocal cords would crack with how dry her throat was. After she’d confirmed the taxi, she did a double-check of her clutch bag to make sure she had her survival kit for the night. Phone, bank cards, a few twenties and tens. Keys, caffeine tablets. A miniscule sample bottle of perfume and her lipstick, as well as tissues just in case. She cursed whoever invented clutch bags for making it acceptable to carry a tiny rectangle around under your arm of an evening instead of a full sized handbag. Suddenly remembering her invite, Brooke folded it in half and stuck it inside her clutch, which was slowly beginning to resemble Mary Poppins’ carpet bag. 

As her phone began to ring signalling the arrival of her taxi outside, Brooke hurriedly slipped on a pair of nude heels and took one last look around her room of a flat before leaving. It was a total mess of clothes, makeup and hair products, but future Brooke could deal with it. Opening the door and then clicking it closed, she carefully made her way down her stairwell and into the black cab that was waiting for her. 

Now that she was on the road and on the way to Vanessa’s Brixton flat, Brooke felt herself calming down just a little. At least she was now on the move and it wasn’t as if it would simply be the both of them alone together; Jan would be there too and Brooke supposed it was quite impossible to be nervous around the most enthusiastic human alive. Brooke shot a quick text off to Vanessa just to let her know she was on the way and then decided to let herself relax just a little. 

She couldn’t at all, but at least the effort had been made to try.

Soon enough the taxi pulled up outside Vanessa’s unthreatening-looking apartment building. Brooke crammed one of her notes through the little pane of Perspex glass that separated driver and passenger and stepped outside, clip-clopping up to the front door and pushing the buzzer for Vanessa’s flat. She was met around five seconds later with a loud buzz as the front door was opened, allowing Brooke to walk up one flight of stairs. She felt as if she was walking into either heaven or hell, the giddy excitement and the underlying feeling of dread she felt simultaneously made it hard to tell which. Reaching Vanessa’s door she almost felt like the breath was being knocked out of her lungs as it opened only to find Jan on the other side of it smiling widely and holding a champagne flute full of what could have been champagne but was likely prosecco. 

“Hey girl!” she squealed as she wrapped Brooke in a welcoming hug, her cheerful greeting providing Brooke with a sense of comfort in the chaos that was currently her mind. “Come in, ‘Nessa’s not ready yet. Shock.”

Stumbling slightly as Jan showed her to the living room, Brooke quickly scanned her surroundings. Vanessa’s flat seemed small but modern, although it had definitely had a couple of previous owners judging by general wear and tear- a scuff on a skirting board here, a chip out of the plaster in one wall there. Then again Brooke would be loath to judge her based on the state she’d left her own flat in. Jan ushered Brooke through to a bright, airy living room with two medium-sized leather sofas providing bookends for a coffee table, on top of which sat a few bottles of nail polish, some empty champagne flutes, an open bottle of prosecco, and a few crumpled pieces of cotton wool. There was a wall-mounted TV sitting at one end of the sofas and at the other end of the room there was a simple dining setup with a table and six mismatched chairs. 

“You look beautiful, girl,” Jan smiled at Brooke, picking up an empty flute and filling it with prosecco. 

“Thanks, so do you,” Brooke simultaneously accepted and returned the compliment, still getting used to her new surroundings as she accepted the glass that Jan shoved into her hand without even thinking. She hadn’t planned on drinking anything tonight but she was beginning to feel as if she’d need just one glass. Realising how flippantly she’d given the compliment back, she examined Jan’s outfit more closely. She’d gone for a long grey tulle gown which puffed out at the waist, and her hair was up in a high ponytail and curled gently at the ends. Her make-up had clearly been well thought-out, and was immaculate as a result. 

“So how much of tonight is really going to be about work?” Jan asked dryly, raising one perfect eyebrow. Brooke let out a laugh.

“A solid 100%,” she instantly replied, pausing as she took a sip from her glass. The prosecco was good. “All it’s going to be is us introducing Jackie to various idiots from the media and hoping she goes down well.”

“Well there’s no question about that, of course she will,” Jan shrugged, leaning back on the couch. Brooke felt her top lip curl in disagreement.

“Not to be mean, but you are kind of biased,” she said simply, Jan rolling her eyes as she was met with words she clearly didn’t want to hear. 

“I know but come on, Brooke. Even you have to admit she’s likeable, and I know you don’t even like many people.”

Brooke simply shrugged and took a sip of her prosecco. It was working wonders to loosen her up, although she was still acutely aware of the fact that Vanessa hadn’t emerged from her room yet. Jan seemed to think the same thing in the silence.

“Vanessa! Hurry the fuck up, Brooke Lynn’s about to drink all your alcohol,” she yelled through the walls, Vanessa giving a muffled reply that Brooke couldn’t really make out. Jan shook her head and laughed long-sufferingly, then seemed to pick up on Brooke’s anxiety.

“She looks gorgeous, by the way,” Jan mentioned nonchalantly, avoiding Brooke’s death glare by staring into her glass of fizz. 

“Don’t you dare say anything,” Brooke pointed one acrylic-nailed talon towards her friend as a simple warning. 

“I’m not doing anything! I’m just saying,” Jan smiled smugly, tipping a little more of her drink into her mouth. Swallowing, she continued. “Do you think you’ll say anything to her tonight?”

“No, and I won’t be saying anything to her for a considerable amount of time. This conversation is ending now,” Brooke barked a reply, Jan’s questioning only putting her further on edge. She didn’t mean to upset her friend and snap, but she was already so anxious and nervous that talking about the situation would surely make it worse. Jan seemed to take Brooke’s nerves on the chin though, simply raising her eyebrows in amusement. Relaxing her face she then took out her phone, glancing at it for a few seconds. Brooke watched as she grew disappointed. 

“You alright?” she asked, concerned about her friend who now seemed to be attempting to conceal her feelings. 

“Oh, yeah. Sure! I just…Jackie. Just sent me a photo. And she looks so amazing, and I’m so proud to call her my girlfriend, you know?” Jan sighed, Brooke feeling the weight of her heavy heart hanging in the atmosphere. 

“Well that’s good, right? Nothing about what you said is something to be sad about, unless I’ve taken a bump to the fucking skull and woken up in a world where happy is now sad, and sad is now happy, and Lorraine Kelly is the president of Iran, and cous-cous has been privatised,” Brooke joked, trying to lighten the mood. It earned her one very weak smile from Jan. 

“No, I’m happy! Of course I’m happy. It’s just…well, I wish I could show her off to everyone tonight and be public and proud of her and disgustingly PDA,” she shrugged, her shoulders radiating disappointment. Brooke was confused. 

“Not that it’s any of my business but you know it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to go public, right? But at the same time...you and Jackie can’t stay under wraps forever, she’s a politician. The media are on her like a hawk 24/7.”

Jan rolled her eyes. “I know that, B, of course I know that. Our whole first date we couldn’t do anything that couples would normally do in case there were paps somehow nearby. She was so paranoid. She still is.”

Remembering her political stance, Brooke pulled a face. “To be fair, I guess she’s trying to keep the professional balance. You have to remember she’s still your boss, girl.”

Sighing, Jan nodded and picked at a piece of her nail polish that had already developed a chip. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. And I mean I’ll always support Jackie’s career, she’s good at what she does, and that’s not me being biased. I knew what I was getting myself into when I fell for her, I’ve only got myself to blame. I just…sometimes wish we were a normal couple, you know?”

Brooke gave a nod of support, and the two sat in companionable silence for a while. Brooke was worried for Jan. She was such a sweet friend, and Brooke had never seen her with someone before. She was so conflicted, the professional and personal sides of her brain sitting like a small devil and a small angel on her shoulders. On the one hand, it would be hell for the party if it got out that Jackie was seeing one of her advisors, but on the other all Brooke really wanted was for Jan to be happy, which was clearly what she was. Brooke couldn’t help but wonder, though, how long such a relationship could go on for. From her calculations Jackie and Jan had been together for a month now, a month of sneaking around together and doing everything secretively and privately. It was a little what Brooke imagined cheating to feel like, except the only people the two women were keeping things secret from were the public. It had only been just over two weeks since Brooke had found out about them and even that was completely by accident. If the media even got a whiff of an inter-party relationship and made the effort to investigate it, who knew how long it would take before they could raise hell with the information. It made Brooke shudder a little. 

“You are being careful though, right girl? You and Jackie,” she said quietly, breaking the silence. Jan snorted playfully. 

“Yeah. She uses condoms and I’m on the pill and neither one of us is pregnant.”

Brooke couldn’t help but splutter a laugh mid-way through a sip of prosecco. “Oh, shut up! You know what I mean. I’m only looking out for you. I don’t want the media treating you guys as their chew toy.”

Clearly not in the mood to be serious, Jan rested her head in her hands and looked affectionately at Brooke. “Aww, is Brooke Lynn Hytes actually being…nice? Showing concern? This is impossible. Next minute she’ll be surrounded by bluebirds and shedding tears.”

“You know I had my tear ducts cauterised shut at the age of 12,” Brooke joked back, leaning back in her chair and finally relaxing, trusting Jan’s judgement. She felt her heart give a little judder, however, as she heard a pair of heels approaching from the corridor behind her and saw Jan’s eyes dart to just behind Brooke’s shoulder. 

“Well this was a damn weird point to enter the conversation,” Vanessa’s voice suddenly filled the living room, and Brooke had to steel herself before she turned round and saw her. 

Vanessa looked so stunning that Brooke momentarily lost her breath. Her black dress was floor-length with a little lace train at its back, and the bodice was slightly corseted which served to pull her in at the waist. There were little patterned black flowers adding texture here and there, and her shoes could barely be seen under the sheer length of the gown. Her makeup was dark and smoky, a style which Brooke had never seen Vanessa wear before but she looked beautiful for it. Her hair cascaded in curls that framed either side of her face. Brooke very suddenly became acutely aware of two things: one, that she now felt like a tramp compared to her two friends and two, that she was now more nervous than she’d ever been in her life. 

Vanessa seemed to pick up on Brooke’s awed stare, as her expression became a little apprehensive. “Fuck. It’s too much, isn’t it? I knew I’d be overdressed, I fuckin’ told Scarlet I’d be overdressed, but she made me buy the damn thing and ugh, I need to go an’ change ‘cuz everyone’s gonna be staring at me and-”

“‘Ness,” Brooke found herself interjecting urgently and stopping her worried friend, if she could even call what she felt for Vanessa friendship any more. Vanessa ceased talking abruptly, looking at Brooke with a little shock in her eyes. Brooke tried to sound as casual as she possibly could as she continued her sentence. “Don’t change. You look really good.”

Brooke felt like kicking herself for how feeble the compliment seemed. She’d wanted to say beautiful, or stunning, or incredible, but everything seemed too strong and Vanessa would have suspected something. She needn’t have worried, though, as Vanessa’s face instantly lit up, pleased that she had the approval of her friend. 

“You look amazing, girl,” Jan chimed in, handing Vanessa a glass of prosecco that Brooke was unsure when she’d poured. “Come sit, Jackie’s car isn’t meant to pick us up for another half hour at least.”

Obliging, Vanessa opted to sit beside Brooke on the couch facing Jan. Brooke noticed that Vanessa must have been wearing new perfume, one that smelt of vanilla and jasmine and made Brooke’s heart hurt at how much she wanted to just blurt out something she shouldn’t.

Draining her glass and reaching for the prosecco bottle, Brooke looked up at the wall-mounted clock. Half an hour until they were picked up by Jackie. She could get through this.

***

Brooke was happy. Really quite pleasantly happy in fact, as if there was a warm blanket that had been draped over her after her third glass of prosecco. She should probably stop drinking soon. She’d have to have some champagne when she got to the ball, otherwise it would look odd. But when Vanessa had unearthed two more bottles of fizz from her fridge, it became increasingly hard to say no. 

She was a lot less nervous as well, although she wasn’t sure how much of that was thanks to the prosecco. Brooke wasn’t sure why she’d been nervous about coming round to Vanessa’s flat. Vanessa was so lovely and relaxed, and definitely generous with the top-ups. Every so often Jan would make a joke or do an impression of Bianca or Nina, and Vanessa would laugh so hard she would flail her arms and her hands would come to rest on Brooke’s arm, or her thigh, or her hand. She supposed any other time it would have made her even more nervous but now she simply reciprocated, mirroring Vanessa’s hands each time. Every time Vanessa shot a smile Brooke’s way she felt her heart melt a little bit more, but the feeling wasn’t like how she felt whenever the same happened at work. The prosecco gave her a little buzz and made her a little more hopeful that Vanessa reciprocated her feelings, and only reinforced the sense that this night had something magical about it. Every so often Brooke felt that the energy between her and Vanessa was electric, especially when Jan left the room at one point and left the two girls alone together. They were both so giggly and touchy and flirty, although Brooke wasn’t sure how much of that was in her own head, and she’d often been very close to closing the ever-decreasing gap between them and kissing Vanessa like she’d wanted to all this time. 

It was a good thing, then, that Jackie’s car arrived when it did. Around ten minutes later than she should’ve arrived, Vanessa heard the sound of the car horn from her window long before she heard her flat intercom buzzer and started hurrying Brooke and Jan out, Brooke sort of blindly grabbing her clutch bag and her coat and hoping she had everything she needed. 

She had Vanessa, though, and she supposed she’d be alright with just her. 

Rushing out of Vanessa’s stairwell and clip-clopping into the taxi, Brooke was met by Jackie and Nina already inside. She couldn’t really see what either of them were wearing, but from what she could see they both looked good; Nina scrubbing up well in an off-shoulder black and white striped dress and Jackie in what seemed to be a deep blue sequin dress which complimented her figure. As she raised her arm up to wave, Brooke could see it was long-sleeved. Sitting in the far right hand seat, Brooke watched as Jan’s eyes widened when she saw her girlfriend, Jackie smiling shyly at her as Jan clambered into the car. 

“Jackie, you look gorgeous,” Jan said, her voice full of awe as she took her seat beside Brooke. Jackie looked to the ground momentarily, clearly flattered by her girlfriend’s reaction. 

“So do you. Beautiful,” she replied. Brooke could see that the both of them were desperate to hold each other’s hands or do _something_ that any other couple would do upon seeing the person they cared for the most looking their absolute best. It was the sort of thing Brooke had been contemplating earlier and now she was seeing it played out in front of her, a sad sort of tragedy to the whole scene. Jackie seemed to snap out of whatever spell Jan had put her under and instead turned to compliment Vanessa who was climbing into the back seat. Brooke didn’t miss the way Jan looked to the floor, her eyes a little disappointed. Nudging her, Brooke gave her a sympathetic smile. Jan smiled back gratefully.

“Nina, bitch! You look incredible! So good!” Vanessa exclaimed, each syllable more drawn-out than the last as she reached over and planted both her hands on Nina’s knees. Raising one eyebrow, the senior press officer gave Vanessa a suspicious look. 

“And you look drunk,” she replied dryly. With that the other three girls in the car burst out laughing, the amount of prosecco Brooke had drunk making everything seem that little bit funnier. Nina didn’t seem impressed. “Ladies, please! Pull yourselves together, what is Baroness Edwards going to think?”

“She’s going to think we’re legends!” Jackie smiled smugly, Brooke only just noticing the slight smell of white wine from her indicating she’d done a bit of pre-drinking of her own. A sudden sense of dread began to form in the pit of Brooke’s stomach, making her feel as if perhaps she shouldn’t have drunk all that prosecco after all. On the plus side, Jackie seemed a lot more relaxed and carefree than she’d been earlier at work, so if anything at least she would be a happy drunk. 

“Jackie, ask your driver if we can put some Cascada on!” Vanessa practically yelled. As Jackie turned to face the driver’s seat, Nina put a hand out to stop her. 

“We are not turning up to the red carpet with Cascada blaring out the car,” she admonished her, Brooke glad that Nina was the sole representative for sobriety. As Jackie and Vanessa both pouted, Brooke found herself wondering how long the car journey had to go. Roughly fifteen more minutes of Vanessa and Jackie begging for various club remixes, Jan and Brooke almost wetting themselves with laughter, and Nina attempting to be the voice of reason was followed by the car coming to a complete stop with the driver getting out of the front seat and opening the side door, exposing the five of them to one long strip of red, the Dorchester’s glamorous entranceway, and a border of bright flashing bulbs. Brooke felt her throat close up slightly. The nerves were back in full force as she realised the sheer scale of what they were about to enter into. Jackie got out of the car confidently, followed by Jan and then Nina. Only Brooke and Vanessa remained in the car. Glancing at Vanessa, she looked as nervous as Brooke felt. 

“Hey,” Brooke caught her attention, Vanessa’s doe eyes wide in fear. “We’ll be fine. This evening will be fine.”

She couldn’t help that she instantly wanted to reassure and protect Vanessa. It seemed to kick in in situations like these, almost instinctive. As Vanessa smiled at her, Brooke felt her heart almost explode as Vanessa suddenly reached for Brooke’s hand and took it in her own.

“You know, Brooke Lynn, I never told you how amazin’ you look tonight,” Vanessa said, her words slurring only a little bit. As she gave Brooke’s hand one final squeeze, let it go and began to leave the car, Brooke felt as if her palms had never been sweatier. In her alcohol-soaked mind she had no idea whether or not Vanessa’s compliment was sincere or just as a result of all the prosecco she’d drank herself. With her heart beating so fast she felt she would faint, Brooke clambered out of the car in a daze. 

Walking a red carpet was something Brooke had never done before and something she never really wanted to do again. It was a weird experience, with too many bright lights and people shouting and fake smiles and awkward poses. Jackie, however, seemed in her element, stopping every so often to have her photo taken and each time making Brooke pray she was sober enough to decide against pulling out a peace sign or a dab or something akin to the two. By a miracle, the five managed to make it inside the Dorchester without any PR disasters.

Immediately, the elegance of the entire place was apparent. The marble floor glistened as if it was glass, and identical marble pillars stood at either side of the doorway welcoming them. The wallpaper was cream and completely pristine without a single scuff or scratch on it. Brooke scarcely had time to take in the rest of her surroundings as a large doorman prompted them for their invitations. Brooke dug inside her clutch bag and handed it over, a little embarrassed by how crumpled it had become. Having established that none of them seemed to be gatecrashers, the doorman gave them a friendly smile and unlocked the small red velvet rope that separated the entrance from the grand ballroom. 

Here Brooke felt even more overwhelmed, and by the reactions of the others she wasn’t alone. The ballroom looked exactly like something from a Disney film; the marble continued from the hallway, leading down an ornate staircase and onto a lavishly patterned floor where hundreds of glamorous media presences stood and chatted to one another. The walls were just as extravagant, champagne-coloured wallpaper interrupted every so often by a vase full of white lilies on a marble plinth, or a stone mantelpiece, or a section of wall covered entirely by mirrors. There was another room just jutting off to the left hand side which Brooke could see held a bar and the promised roulette tables. A small orchestra sat on the opposite side of the room, playing something classical that Brooke couldn’t even begin to recognise. As she stood and drank in her surroundings, she turned to face the others. Jan looked very similar to when she first saw Jackie. Nina was practically slack-jawed. The fear was very much back in Vanessa’s eyes and Jackie was frozen still. 

“Maybe there’s a mistake. Maybe we shouldn’t be here,” Jackie muttered, clearly overwhelmed by her surroundings. There was a beat of silence in which Brooke felt like agreeing, and then Jan frowned, protesting. 

“No. No mistake. You deserve to be here, Jackie. You’ve made a good impression and tonight is about that! Look at you...” she finished quietly, gesturing to Jackie’s dress. “You have every right to be here.”

Taking a deep breath, Jackie seemed to swallow her anxiety and nodded, taking Jan’s hand and giving it a quick squeeze. 

“So. What now?” Nina asked, shuffling a little on the spot. No sooner had she asked that question was Brooke immediately alerted to a cry that appeared to come from the middle of the ballroom. 

“There she is!” came the unmistakable voice of Baroness Edwards, who seemed to half-elbow her way through the crowd and up the stairs to where Jackie stood. Brooke was a little taken aback- Alyssa was a huge presence, her smile so hugely bright and giving the impression that Jackie was an old friend and not just someone she’d never met before in her life. Her gown was equally as loud as she was; bright yellow and patterned with glittering jewels. Her light brown hair was swept up into an elaborate bun, making absolutely nothing about her outfit understated at all. She was intimidating, but not necessarily in a bad way. 

“Baroness, it’s such a pleasure,” Jackie replied humbly, Brooke glad that her surroundings seemed to sober her up a little. “Thank you so much for inviting us here this evening. Everything looks beautiful!”

Alyssa howled in protestation, smacking Jackie on the arm and causing her to flinch. “Don’t you give me all that Baroness nonsense! It’s Alyssa to you, baby.”

Tuning out of Alyssa’s ramblings, Brooke looked over to Vanessa and gave her a smug smile, reminded of their earlier conversation. Vanessa stuck her tongue out in retaliation, the two both giggling like children. 

“I just had to have you here after the big splash you’ve made ever since you came on the scene, Miss Shamu! Oh no, that makes it sound like I’m calling you fat,” Alyssa reeled back in horror, then howled with laughter. “But you know what I mean, Miss Thing! You’ve been causing a commotion, like Madonna. There we are, see, Madonna’s a better comparison.”

Brooke was nothing short of amazed that Jackie was managing to follow the conversation without being slightly horrified. 

“Well, you and I both know how frantic politics can get, Miss Edwards,” she shrugged, keeping her tone formal. “And sometimes it’s necessary to rock the boat a little.”

“Yes, ma’am! Guys and Dolls style,” Alyssa vehemently agreed, nodding so hard that Brooke thought her bun would come apart. “Well, keep up the good work, Miss Cox. The world needs more politicians like you, that’s for certain. Now, you enjoy this evening, won’t you? That’s one thing I want the most from everyone here. That and their money!”

With that, Alyssa gave another yelp of laughter, gripping Jackie’s arm for dear life as she got her breath back. 

“It’ll be a lovely night, Miss Edwards, and thank you once again for the invite,” Jackie smiled at her. With an affectionate smile back and a quick hug, Alyssa was gone, now shouting down the corridor as she spied another new arrival. As she watched the Baroness retreating, Jackie turned to the others and gave them all a look of sheer disbelief. 

“I feel like I just met the human incarnation of caffeine,” she said blankly, still slightly dazed. Just then, a smartly-dressed waiter with a silver drinks tray approached the group. Jackie gratefully took a tall glass of champagne, Vanessa following after. Brooke decided to decline. 

“You did very well, Jackie. I think you made a very good first impression,” Nina praised her, Vanessa and Jan nodding proudly. 

“Just do that with everyone you meet tonight and we might have world domination on our hands,” Brooke smiled, admittedly proud of the Minister. Jackie had done well. Maybe she didn’t need to be so worried. Suddenly, Brooke became aware of a presence behind her. 

“Oh, well, let’s not get carried away!” a voice laughed rather affectedly. Whipping around, Brooke was faced with Nicky Doll and the Satanic Tweedledee and Tweedledum themselves, Crystal and Gigi. Their dresses were all equally brash, a mismatched colour chart of hot pink, cream and some pattern made up of lime green and blue. A suited man hung on Gigi’s arm, which Brooke had an infinite number of questions about. None of them could be answered, however, as Jackie was already giving Nicky a faux-pleasant smile. 

“Nicky! What a...pleasure,” she smiled sarcastically, punctuating the end of her sentence with a sip of champagne. Nicky simply laughed a little in response. 

“I trust you’re enjoying the evening so far? I imagine it must be really quite intimidating, you know, coming and seeing the elite of society all mingling together in one of the most elegant settings available. I’d feel quite out of my depth if I were you,” Nicky shrugged, Crystal smirking behind her. “The ballroom is quite overwhelming for anyone who hasn’t visited before. I’m not so unfortunate, I mean I actually had my 21st birthday party here. And my 16th.”

“Was this before or after your Dad fucked a pig?” Brooke found herself saying, shocking herself slightly but only blinded by the anger she felt coursing through her veins. Or maybe it was the alcohol. Brooke heard a splutter of laughter from behind her, but she couldn’t tell who it had come from. Nicky, for her part, looked as if she’d been slapped. Gigi spoke up from behind her, her face set in a scowl. 

“You know there’s a lot of journalists here this evening, Brooke. You should watch what you say.”

“Oh, hey Gigi. Nice date, where’d you get him? The fuckin’ pound store?” Brooke continued, the words tumbling from her mouth like vomit. Someone behind her was now fully cracking up, and from the laugh she recognised it as Jan. All four guests in front of Brooke were now looking suitably shut down, looking as if they wished to be anywhere than in front of their opposition. Nicky gave a little sniff of derision. 

“Yes. Well. Enjoy your evening, I hope you don’t make any horrific social faux pas, Jackie. It would be a shame to see your face on the front pages tomorrow, especially when I’m announcing a new policy.”

“Turn your policy on its ass and spin on it,” Brooke snapped, heartily sick of the sight of the people in front of her. With a raise of her eyebrows, Nicky led her small clique away down the stairs. Still full of rage, Brooke breathed a huge sigh and turned around to face her friends. Vanessa, Jan and Jackie were beaming at her. Nina looked vaguely ill. 

“Brooke, don’t ever-”

“Oh, Nina, shut up! That was fucking amazing. I want that on tape,” Jan cried excitedly, happy that the opposition had been put in their place. 

“Did she say she was announcing tomorrow? Why haven’t I heard about this?” Nina questioned, her tone full of concern. Jan gave her a smile of reassurance. 

“Don’t worry, Nina. She was probably just bluffing, the big sack of wind that she is.”

“She’s a big sack of a lot of things,” Brooke practically hissed, still absolutely livid. She calmed a little as Vanessa stroked her arm in an attempt to calm her down. 

“Shh. You’ve shut her up now, bitch. Plus that shit was kinda hot,” Vanessa giggled, her voice having the same effect on Brooke’s rage as water on fire and in turn making her heart leap fifty feet in the air. “Should we go find Bianca? I kinda want to see what she looks like in a ballgown. Morbid fascination, y’know?” 

As Brooke nodded and made to move away she was interrupted by a smart waitress with another drinks tray full of long flutes of champagne. Shrugging, Brooke reached out and took one from the shining silver platter, thanking the girl as she left. Taking a sip, the cold, slightly metallic taste soothed her anger a little more. 

What harm would another drink do, after all?


	6. Crisis Management

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Prime Minister’s legacy has been leaked to the opposition and the girls have to stop them announcing it. Throw in a ton of alcohol and a clingy, tipsy Vanessa, and this makes Brooke’s job even more difficult.

They had only been at the Dorchester for two hours, and the night was already an absolute shambles.

As Brooke stood at the bar with Nina and swayed slightly in her heels, she replayed the evening’s events in her head. Everything had started off well enough- they had found Bianca and she had greeted them all heartily, Jackie’s transgression from earlier in the day seemingly forgotten. They’d stood and chatted for a while, every so often a new waiter or waitress offering them champagne and Brooke, Jackie, Jan and Vanessa gladly accepting. Bianca even introduced Jackie to an ITV intern who had seemingly managed to blag herself an invite through sheer charm alone; Valerie or Valancia or Val-something. 

“She might not seem much now,” Bianca had muttered after she’d been swept away by someone senior at ITV. “But in a couple of years she is going to be big, mark my words. You’ll be glad I introduced you.”

After chatting and drinking with Bianca for a while, Jackie bumped into Widow Von’Du, who led her away to a small booth in the bar for a chat. It was nice- Widow really did seem to like Jackie, and so Brooke was comfortable at that moment leaving them alone with Nina and Jan as Vanessa kept begging Brooke to go with her to the toilets. 

She supposed that was the turning point of the evening; having a drunk Vanessa clinging to Brooke’s waist in the middle of the bathroom and telling her how much she loved her and how beautiful she was only made Brooke’s heart swell and break at the same time. Having no way of knowing if Vanessa was sincere or not hurt her more than she’d care to admit, so Brooke did what any other drunk girl would do in that situation and hugged her back, told her the exact same things except she knew she meant every word, the alcohol only making the truth flow more freely. 

They hadn’t kissed, although Brooke had wanted to. She’d never admit that out loud, though.

When they’d got back from the toilet they’d found Jan on her own at the booth with no Nina, no Widow, and no Jackie. 

“Widow took Jackie to the roulette tables- I thought I shouldn’t try and stop her in case Widow got annoyed!” Jan explained, as Brooke politely asked her how the fuck she’d managed to lose everyone. Nina had apparently gone to the bar to get a glass of water for Jackie. 

“How many drinks has she had altogether?!” Brooke exclaimed. Jan muttered a number with a “teen” on the end. Brooke almost threw up. 

“Fuck me gently. Right, follow me,” she exhaled noisily, storming through the crowd in the direction of the roulette tables with Vanessa and Jan following after her. In the midst of the madness, Brooke whipped her head round and turned to Jan. “How the fuck was this allowed to happen?!”

“I didn’t want to try to stop her! Not with Widow there. Maybe it could be a good idea to get Jackie spending a bit? Fuck, I don’t know. I’m really quite drunk,” Jan babbled, as Vanessa grabbed a champagne flute from a waiter on her way past. Brooke had to admire her method of coping. As she scanned the room, her eyes suddenly came to rest on one corner- Jackie laughing and clinging to the arm of a young-looking Asian girl with flowing dark hair and high cheekbones dressed in a red and black gown that clung to her curves. Brooke stopped dead. 

“Shit,” Vanessa whispered. “That’s Kimora Blac.” 

Brooke instantly broke out into a cold sweat. Kimora’s face was amused, in the same way someone would watch with amusement as a monkey flung its own faeces around in its zoo enclosure. Swallowing her fear, Brooke crossed the room and approached the two. 

“Miss Blac, it’s lovely to meet you,” she cut into the conversation, Jackie turning around and beaming a smile at her. 

“Brookie!” Jackie cried, flinging her arms around her and filling Brooke’s nose with the scent of alcohol. “Kimora, this is Brooke, one of my lovely advisors. Me and Brooke used to go to university together, we were the _best_ of friends!”

Brooke cringed and attempted to peel her boss off of her shoulders. Watching Kimora’s amused smirk, she was filled with horror at the thought of what else Jackie had told her in the short time. 

“Sorry if Jackie’s said anything to offend you, Miss Blac,” Jan cut in, her voice apologetic. Kimora simply laughed, waving her hands dismissively. 

“Are you kidding? She’s great. I love her. Jackie’s said I can write an article about her,” she smiled sweetly, Brooke honestly unable to tell if Kimora had sinister or good intentions. Fuck being drunk. 

“It’s going to be GREAT. I’m going to be a STAR,” Jackie smiled, turning to cling to the young journalist once again. Instead Jan diverted her into her own arms, Jackie flopping over slightly as if she was a human slinky. 

“Well, it’s been lovely meeting you Miss Blac but you know what it’s like at these events. Lots of people to see!” Brooke smiled through gritted teeth, wanting to grab one of the silver drinks trays from a passing waiter and just knock Jackie unconscious with it. Then again, if Brooke thought about it, the state Jackie was in really wasn’t that far off unconsciousness. Kimora nodded, understanding. Or fake understanding. Brooke couldn’t tell which. Fuck, it was so inconvenient being drunk at this point in time.

“Of course! I get it. I’ll maybe head to the auction, see if I can get someone cute to win me something cuter,” Kimora smiled, Brooke suddenly genuinely worried for whichever man or woman she decided to latch herself onto. “Bye, Jackie! It was so lovely to meet you!”

The three didn’t even wait to see which direction Kimora walked away in before they whisked Jackie off back to the booths. The entire way back Jackie was rambling on about roulette, and Buzzfeed, and some vase she wanted to win at the auction. 

“You’re not going anywhere near that auction, so you can shut that idea down right now,” Brooke scolded her, suddenly feeling more like a mother than ever. Finally reaching the booths and practically fainting into her seat, Brooke allowed herself a deep sigh of relief at the fact that they had Jackie back under control, even if she was currently behaving like a toddler stuck in the body of a grown woman. 

“I need a drink after that,” Vanessa said, completely deadpan. Jan and Jackie looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Brooke rolled her eyes, but secretly found Vanessa’s quip just a little bit funny. 

“I’m going to find Nina. Think she’ll probably still be at the bar judging by the queue,” Brooke sighed, thinking that if she could just glug down a couple of glasses of water then perhaps she’d be able to sober up a little. 

Elbowing her way to the front of the huge crowd in front of the bar, Brooke was soon able to find Nina standing right at the front of it, the bored look on her face indicating that she still hadn’t been served. 

“This is like a fucking zombie apocalypse,” Brooke said by way of a greeting as she finally reached her colleague. Nina rolled her eyes and gestured in front of her. 

“Fifteen bloody minutes I’ve been standing here, and nobody’s even acknowledged me. This is exactly why I never go to bars,” she sighed bitterly, ending her sentence with a pointed look at one of only two bartenders who rushed past her. 

Brooke indulged Nina in a small laugh. She was glad of the time she had with Nina, a little break with somebody sober and level-headed. Brooke had always liked Nina and enjoyed working with her; sure, she poked fun at her every so often but she did that with everyone, and Nina always took it in good humour. Brooke had only just begun to appreciate the small moment of calm in the sea of chaos when a bartender approached her.

“What’ll it be, ma’am?”

Brooke looked at Nina in disbelief, who started laughing incredulously. “Excuse me?! My friend has been standing here for over fifteen minutes and not even got a second glance, but as soon as I stroll up I instantly get attention?”

The bartender looked suitably shamed as Nina’s laughter continued. Brooke bristled as she asked him for a jug of tap water and five glasses. 

“Sorry about that idiot, Nina,” Brooke rolled her eyes, receiving a shrug from the latter.

“Brooke, it’s okay. I am perfectly at peace with this MILF-without-a-child aesthetic I’ve managed to cultivate. I’m just glad you showed up when you did or I’d probably have returned to you all having aged about 50 years.”

Laughing, Brooke looked fondly at her co-worker. “I fucking love you, Neens, you’re so funny. I’m glad I get to work with you.”

Nina raised a single eyebrow. 

“Don’t even start with the emotional drunk chat, you big…” she seemed to struggle for an insult for a while until she looked across at some man’s martini glass. “…olive.”

As Brooke laughed, she became aware of a commotion behind her. Turning around, she saw Bianca elbowing through the crowds, stopping when she saw Nina and Brooke. 

“Christ, what does a lady have to do to get a drink around here?” she asked them by way of a greeting. As the bartender thudded a jug and five glasses down in front of the distracted Brooke, Bianca gave her a concerned look. “What’s with all the water? Are you a fucking fish?”

“No, it’s just for…um. Well, Jackie could use some, put it that way,” Brooke shrugged, turning to leave. Bianca stopped her in her tracks. 

“Is Jackie drunk? Don’t tell me she’s drunk or I’ll kill you.”

Brooke pulled a pained expression. “You’re not really selling the truth to me, Bianca.”

Bianca’s face darkened. “This isn’t the time for jokes, this is fucking serious! How many people has she spoken to in her state?!”

Brooke looked to the floor. “Kimora Blac, Widow Von’Du-”

“WIDOW VON FUCKING-” Bianca yelled in disbelief, then realised she’d drawn them some attention and lowered her voice. “Widow Von’Du?! She might as well have just vomited on the PM’s shoes! What the fuck must Widow have thought?!”

“In Jackie’s defence, Bianca, Widow was pretty merry herself and seemed quite happy to chat away to her,” Nina spoke up, calmly pouring herself a glass of water. Bianca snorted derisively. 

“Christmas is merry, Nina. Merry and wrecked are at two opposite ends of the fucking scale,” Bianca hissed at her. Just then, Bianca’s elbow was suddenly jolted by a young woman stepping in front of her. Brooke recognised her as Gia Gunn, one of the journalists from the Daily Mail. 

“Um, Gia? There’s a queue here. I’m fucking parched,” Bianca snapped at her. It was no secret that the two had bad blood from way before the days of Darienne, but Brooke had never known or indeed asked where it had stemmed from. Gia turned and gave Bianca a placid smile. 

“Oh. Hello, Bianca. Wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you,” she raised her eyebrows and flipped some of her long, straight dark hair over her shoulder.

“Well it’d be a pleasure to see you in a fucking coffin, but here we are,” Bianca snapped, Brooke a little taken aback at just how little time she had for the journalist. Gia simply shrugged at her in response. 

“I’d have thought you would have had a lot of running about to do instead of just standing there hurling insults at me, Bianca.”

Bianca screwed her face up. “Running about, what, what the fuck does that mean? I work for the government, not the fucking Olympics.”

Gia blinked once at her as if she was talking to a toddler. “Well, I just thought that since the leader of the opposition is announcing this new policy that she’ll be trying to get enforced tomorrow, you’d be a little worried.”

Bianca stopped, looking once at Brooke and Nina. Brooke felt as if she was frozen solid. So Nicky hadn’t been bluffing- and there was something they clearly didn’t know about. Bianca’s face was grave. Gia gave a little laugh. 

“Gosh, Bianca, don’t tell me you’re out of the loop? The privatisation of immigration? I feel like you’d want to brief at least some of your MPs about it.”

Brooke felt as if she could crash through the floor at any moment. Her mind was racing, and so many thoughts were colliding with each other that she wasn’t really sure what to think first. She looked to Nina in a panic but she was just standing looking at Bianca who was looking at Gia blankly. Gia looked slightly freaked out by the reaction. 

“No, no…she’s not announcing that. She can’t be announcing that. Who told you this?” Bianca finally said, shaking her head. Brooke could see her pulse throbbing at her neck, and with a sinking heart she could already tell that the night was about to take another turn for the worst. 

Gia sighed and inspected her nails. “We got told by Roberta from the opposition press office that Nicky was calling a press conference tomorrow, and that is what it would be about.”

Bianca stood still for a few seconds then suddenly grabbed hold of Brooke and Nina’s arms and wrenched them through the crowd at the bar, her movements being fuelled by what seemed to be pure rage. Once free from the crowd, she stood Nina and Brooke in front of them and leaned in close. 

“How the _fuck_ did I not know about this. One of you start talking.”

“We had no idea that the opposition even knew about this, Bianca! We’re as shocked as you are,” Nina said quickly, her face somewhat blanched. 

“I’m shocked?! The opposition have got hold of the _Prime Minister’s fucking legacy_ and are announcing it tomorrow, and I’m _shocked_?! I’m not shocked, I’m fucking livid!” Bianca said, in a voice that only just fell below speaking volume. It was the sort of pitch that made her blood run cold, the tone of voice that Brooke imagined a killer would speak in. 

“Bianca, none of us know about this! We have no idea how it got out! None of us have said a thing to anyone!” Brooke insisted, determined for Bianca’s flamethrower of anger to be directed away from her. Bianca stood still, her brow completely furrowed. Then suddenly she seemed to have a moment of realisation.

“Jackie.”

Brooke’s eyes grew wide. “No. No, no, no, no, no.”

“Well who the fuck else could it be?! You both heard her this morning, she said herself she’d do anything for it not to go ahead! I wouldn’t fucking put it past her to leak it to Nicky’s lot!” Bianca yelled, this time not caring about the glances she drew. “Where is she?”

Brooke sighed and pointed to the corner booth. “She’s over there, but Bianca-”

Bianca stood for a second, seemingly to gather her thoughts. She looked at Brooke, then at Nina, then at Brooke again, attempting to try and make some sense of the situation. Turning her attention back to Nina, she finally spoke. 

“You are fucking useless to me,” she told her, before grabbing Brooke once more and storming over to Jackie’s table. Brooke could hear Vanessa drunkenly babbling before they even arrived. As they approached her table, Bianca cut Vanessa off. 

“Hey. Florence Shiteingale. Was it you?” Bianca asked Jackie, her gaze like a knife through Jackie’s unsuspecting, drunk gaze. 

Jackie blinked twice, slowly and heavily. “Was what me?” 

Bianca swallowed very deliberately, her anger appearing to simmer under her skin. “I _know_ that you gave the opposition the PM’s legacy. Now… _tell me_ you did it.”

Jackie’s jaw dropped open, clearly completely confused. Brooke couldn’t think of a worse time to confront her. 

“Bianca, I really don’t-”

“Answer the damn question! Was it you?!” Bianca kept her voice low but sinister, leaving Jackie just as confused as before. 

“I never…I never told the opposition anything, I don’t understand what’s going-”

Bianca leant on the table with her hands, leaning into the three girls at the table whose faces were all as frightened and shocked as Brooke’s must have been. “What’s going on is that the opposition have the Prime Minister’s legacy. They’ve stolen it, somehow, and Nicky is announcing it as a policy for her party tomorrow at a press conference.”

Jackie’s face went whiter than it usually was. “That’s impossible, they can’t know about that.”

“Don’t play that card with me, Jackie, you’ve leaked this to them and that’s the whole reason we’re in this mess!”

“How dare you? How dare you accuse me of something I’ve not done?” Jackie half-slurred, half-shouted, rising from her seat a little until Jan put a hand on her thigh and pushed her back down. “I fight things I oppose with words, Bianca, you of all people should know that!”

“Well clearly in this case the words used were clearly, ‘ _Here Nicky! Take this policy that I fucking hate and don’t want to have to support_ ’!” 

Brooke tuned out of the argument, her mind too full to focus on anything. She didn’t believe Jackie had anything to do with the leak at all but she really struggled to think of who else it could have been. The only people who would know where it came from would be members of the opposition, and the only currency their party could use with them was really either bribery or blackmail. Brooke found herself glazing over as she scanned the bar. All of a sudden, her eyes snapped back into focus as she caught a glimpse of two girls- a brunette and a redhead- gripping each other’s hands tightly and disappearing through a door just off to the side of the bar. Brooke’s mind raced until suddenly all thoughts collided at once. It seemed pretty clear to her what was happening, and she hoped to God she was right and that it wasn’t just the alcohol that was clouding her intuition.

“Girls,” Brooke cut in, making sure her voice was able to soar over Bianca and Jackie’s argument without being overly loud. “I think I’ve got an idea. Just…wait. And try not to kill each other while I’m gone.”

Without waiting to hear or see any of their reactions, Brooke sped off in the direction she’d seen the two girls head towards. The alcohol was making her feel funny, as if she was able to walk a lot faster than she would be able to normally. Crowds seemed to part for her as she headed to the small door to one side of the bar, her heels clicking erratically against the marble floor. She stopped when she reached the heavy wooden door the girls had gone through. A small, brass sign read “Employees Only”.

Pressing her ear against the door, Brooke waited, reaching into her clutch bag and pulling out her phone as she did so, swiping onto her camera and making sure it was set up perfectly. Behind the door she could hear muffled sounds, then a hushed giggle. Brooke took that as her starting pistol and barged through the door, keeping her finger held on the shutter to take a burst shot. 

She couldn’t have failed to get the photos she’d wanted. Standing just at the side of a small pantry were just the two people she’d expected. Gigi was pressed against the wall, now completely flat against it in shock, whilst Crystal, who had previously been pressed against Gigi kissing her neck, had suddenly jumped away. The only evidence that they’d done anything was Crystal’s smeared lipstick, a flush of pink against Gigi’s neck, and their crumpled gowns. It was, admittedly, pretty damning evidence, but not as damning as the photos Brooke currently had of them on her phone. 

“Brooke Lynn, what…what the fuck?” Crystal spoke first, backing away from Gigi that little bit more. Her tone was intended to be threatening, Brooke could tell that, but instead all that came out was pure fear. Gigi was completely paralysed and had turned white as a sheet. 

Brooke had frightened them both. 

“Listen, I don’t want any trouble. Well, not a massive amount,” Brooke began coolly, trying to disconnect herself from the whole situation. “I don’t know the whole story, clearly, but it’s obvious that you two are trying to keep whatever this whole thing is on the down low. Bringing...whoever that man was as a fake date, sneaking off here…I get it. So I’m not going to tell Nicky, or Bianca, or the media, about whatever you two are trying to cover up.”

Brooke left a deliberate pause. She’d expected some sort of reply from one of the two girls in front of her, but neither one of them spoke. As Brooke saw Crystal’s hand shaking, she tried to ignore the feeling of guilt that twisted her stomach. 

“As long as you tell me everything you know about the new policy your party is dropping tomorrow,” she finished. Gigi finally moved, bringing both hands to her cheeks and dragging them down. 

“Brooke, I swear. We had nothing to do with it,” Crystal said, her voice shaking. 

“You’re Nicky’s damn advisors, how the fuck could you have no involvement in it?” Brooke scoffed, suddenly resentful of Crystal’s ignorance.

“It’s true, Brooke,” Gigi stammered, staring straight at a spot on the floor, now back to standing like a statue. “Nicky floated the idea of the policy this afternoon and told us Bob had been contacted with it by someone with links to the party. I swear, Brooke, that’s all we know.”

Brooke stood for a second and tried to gather her thoughts. None of this seemed to make sense. 

“You’re lying,” Brooke said bluntly. She didn’t actually think they were, but she hoped it would maybe get a little bit more information from them. What she didn’t expect was Crystal’s breathing becoming shallower. She took two quick steps forward as if she was about to take Brooke’s hand, but she didn’t. Instead, she stopped. 

“Brooke, pl…please,” Crystal began. Brooke could swear she saw tears in her eyes. “We’re telling the truth. We’ll even help you find out anything else. Just, please…don’t. Don’t tell anyone.”

Brooke felt a little at a loss. Blackmail and intimidation was a lot less fun as Bianca made it seem. Crystal was still standing in front of her, her face pleading, whereas Gigi was still against the wall, looking broken. Brooke felt the shame rip at her stomach a little. 

“Gigi’s Dad, he’d-” Crystal began, before she was cut off suddenly by a choked sort of cry from Gigi, indicating that Crystal had perhaps said too much. Looking at the two desperate girls in front of her, Brooke heaved a sigh. 

“I won’t send the pictures to anyone,” Brooke said, Crystal letting out a huge breath she’d clearly been holding. “But you two need to make sure this announcement doesn’t happen. Or if it does, that it’s not concerning this policy. Your whole party needs to forget this policy, right?”

Crystal frowned, frantic. “That’s impos-”

“We’ll make it happen, Brooke. Don’t worry. Just don’t…don’t do anything with those pictures. Please,” Gigi interrupted Crystal, her face still ashen but her body language not as bereft of hope as it had been.

Brooke awkwardly shuffled on the spot and replaced her phone in her clutch bag. “Well then. Yeah. Make it happen.”

With that, she turned and left the small pantry, walking back to the booth much slower than she had been earlier, with a lot less adrenalin powering her on. The last few minutes had left a sour taste in her mouth. She couldn’t shake the image of Crystal’s shaking hands and voice, and Gigi’s ashen face as if she’d been informed of a death. Brooke, after all, knew all too well the crippling fear of not yet being out, the fear of judgement or rejection. Absent-mindedly getting her phone back out and unlocking it, the first picture that came up was the picture of Gigi and Crystal kissing, Brooke having not exited out of it before. Looking at it again, she noticed how Crystal had an arm around Gigi’s waist, almost protectively, and where she had Gigi pinned against the wall she hadn’t been grabbing her wrist but holding her hand. Brooke began to feel she’d made a mistake. 

But looking over at the booth as she approached it, she saw Bianca sitting texting with a face like thunder, glaring at Jackie who was now visibly upset. If she squinted she could see Jan holding her hand under the table. Vanessa looked sheepish and was drinking from another flute of champagne, and Nina had managed to find them all and was texting somebody, presumably trying to get intel on the whole mess. Suddenly remembering how horrible Gigi and Crystal had been to Jan after she’d left their party, Brooke felt a flame under her heart. It wasn’t her damn fault that Gigi and Crystal couldn’t be more discrete with their relationship, or whatever the fuck it was that they were doing. They both knew how this worked, and Brooke was certain that if one of them had caught Jackie and Jan together they would have undoubtedly used it for their own personal gain. They belonged to Nicky Doll’s party and that party was sly, underhand and played dirty. Why the fuck should Brooke be the one to show mercy all of a sudden? 

Confidence reinstated that she was doing the right thing, Brooke walked briskly over to the booth. All five heads shot up to look at her. Brooke felt suddenly tired. 

“They won’t announce tomorrow. Their press conference might still go ahead but I’ve been told that it won’t be about the legacy. Just…don’t ask me how I did it.”

Vanessa beamed up at her, the rest of the faces at the table simply relieved. Bianca decided to ignore her last sentence. 

“Who the fuck told you this? What did they say?”

Brooke went to rub her eyes, then remembered the heavy eyeliner she’d applied hours earlier. “Nicky's advisors. They said that they didn’t have a clue about how Nicky got hold of the policy, only that it had come from outside the party and had been gifted to them. Something weird is going on, but I don’t think it involves Gigi and Crystal. I think it’s deeper than that, and it’s more complex than we thought.”

Bianca sighed, rubbing at her face as she stood and left the booth. 

“Well, that’s my night over. I need to get home and try to get to the bottom of this fucking mess. Jackie,” she snapped, the wearied Minister lifting her head to face her. “I want to speak to you on Monday about this. The opposition found out somehow and until I find someone to blame otherwise I’m holding you entirely responsible, because all evidence at the moment is pointing to you.”

As Jackie gave a single weary nod of resignation, Bianca left the five with a heavy sigh. Brooke could’ve sighed too. All clearly wasn’t well and there was something sinister going on, but at least whatever disaster that could have occurred within the next 24 hours had been prevented. Flopping down onto the seat beside Vanessa, she felt a little shocked as Vanessa’s arm slid around her waist. 

“You’re honestly so fucking good at everything, B,” she slurred, giving her an unexpected kiss on the cheek. 

After everything that had happened in the past hour, Brooke felt as if this was the thing that would kill her. 

“Yeah. Thanks for sorting that shit, Brooke Lynn,” Jackie said without much enthusiasm. “Okay girls, I think I’ll maybe just head home.”

Brooke made a face. She didn’t want Jackie’s night to be ruined by what had happened. “Come on, Jackie, you’ve got to stay. Just…have fun. I don’t care anymore, see, I’ve not got my bossy advisor hat on anymore. In all honesty I’ve been wasted for a good couple of hours now. Go bid on the damn vase or whatever, go on.”

Jackie seemed as if she wasn’t able to hold back a small smile. She looked at Jan, seemingly seeking approval. 

“Do you want to stay?” she asked her, Brooke hoping that Nina wouldn’t catch on to the implication and knowing that Vanessa was too drunk to care. Jan smiled and nodded at her girlfriend, and this seemed to be all the affirmation Jackie needed. 

“Okay, fuck yes. Let’s get me another champagne and win me a fucking vase,” she slapped the table, making to leave the booth. As Brooke turned to get up, Vanessa threw another arm over her, stopping her from leaving. 

“I wanna get cheesy chips,” she whined, Brooke laughing at the obvious drunk munchies that were taking hold. “Can we go get cheesy chips?”

Brooke blinked at Vanessa, her face hopeful and expectant. She could have made some sarcastic comment about the health benefits of chips and cheese, but something about Vanessa’s expression made her decide against it. “Sure. Let’s go.”

Opening her mouth, Brooke made to ask the others if they wanted to come. “Guys, do you-”

“Nooooo,” Vanessa immediately placed a single finger over Brooke’s lips, messily shushing her. “Just us. On our own.”

Brooke thought her heart was about to break her ribcage with the intensity with which it was thudding. She turned to look at Vanessa again. Had her pupils always been blown like that?

“Okay,” Brooke said, grabbing her clutch bag from the table. As Jan and Jackie drifted away, Nina got up decisively. 

“Well, that’s me for the evening. I’m going home to shove on Midsomer Murders, cuddle my wife, and eat that last chocolate éclair I’ve got in my fridge,” she smiled wryly at Brooke, then lowered her voice as she looked pointedly at Vanessa. “For God’s sake, make sure she gets home okay.”

As Nina wandered off, Vanessa threaded her arm through Brooke’s and took her hand, squeezing it a couple of times. 

All she had to do was find a chippy near Park Lane and get Vanessa home to bed. Brooke concluded that the evening couldn’t get much more chaotic if it had been a series of tasks set by God. 

*** 

Brooke trudged over the doorway of Vanessa’s flat as Vanessa herself crashed through the door. She was completely exhausted. After quickly establishing that they wouldn’t find a chippy anywhere near Park Lane, Brooke had hailed them a cab then hailed two more after the first wouldn’t take Vanessa anywhere in case she vomited all over the taxi floor. But as the old saying goes it had been third time lucky, and after a solid 15 minutes of Brooke trying desperately to flag down a taxi and Vanessa whining about how hungry she was and how sore her feet were, they managed to get a taxi back to Brixton. There they’d stopped off on Coldharbour Lane and finally managed to track down a place where they could buy cheesy chips, Vanessa discarding her heels underneath her arm and eating them on the short barefoot walk back to her flat. Brooke did have to listen to her moan about the fact that these weren’t _proper_ cheesy chips, and that _proper_ cheesy chips were made with fat chips swimming in grease, with layered cheese.

Brooke had looked at Vanessa affectionately for the millionth time on the walk home, her heart feeling like it was about to burst. “‘Ness, how the fuck are they expected to layer the cheese?”

Vanessa had spoken through a mouthful of masticated chips and cheese as she spoke, putting huge emphasis on certain words every so often in the way that drunk people often did. “ _No_! ’S actually very _easy._ They put one layer of chips on one side of the carton an’ then chips on the other side of the carton, then put cheese on the top of one of the sides, close the carton over, open it up again, put the cheese on top…boom. Layered cheese. Giuliano’s does it.”

Brooke had been spending the entire journey back to Vanessa’s flat feeling like she was on the verge of a heart attack if she was totally honest. That sort of electric, magical feeling was back in the air as snow clouds hung heavy in the dark sky and gave the streetlamp-orange glowing streets a sort of buzz. She felt happy just being together with Vanessa, being silly and drunk and spending time with her without really doing anything at all. For a moment, Brooke felt that maybe this was all she needed- just to be around Vanessa. She was still happy with her, and not admitting her feelings to her only saved from any potential heartbreak, rejection and embarrassment. Maybe Brooke could live with just being friends.

And then Vanessa had threaded her arm through Brooke’s again, her body warm beside her, and Brooke had thought maybe not. 

Now that they were back at Vanessa’s flat, Brooke felt that all too nervous feeling creeping over her again like a tidal wave waiting to crash against the shore. As Vanessa dumped her heels on the ground and the empty styrofoam carton on her hall table, Brooke lingered at the doorway. 

“Okay, well. I should probably get home.”

Vanessa turned and pouted, looking like a lost puppy. “Nooo, Brooke Lynn! You need to stay an’ make sure I don’t choke on my own tongue in my sleep.”

Brooke snorted a laugh. “That’s not a thing, ‘Ness.”

“It is so! Well…might be chokin’ on vomit. Vomit or tongue. Can’t remember.”

“Two really attractive words.”

“You’re an attractive word,” Vanessa said, leaning against the doorframe of her bedroom and threatening to flop over. “Please? Just…look after me a lil’ more?”

Brooke sighed, her hand still on the handle of Vanessa’s front door. 

_If God doesn’t hate gay people then he’s certainly got a personal fucking vendetta against me._

“Fine!” Brooke threw her hands up, kicking her heels off and making her way down the hall to where Vanessa stood. Her face lighting up in delight, Vanessa took Brooke’s hand, shuffling into her bedroom and not bothering to turn the lights on. Brooke attempted to scan her surroundings in the darkness. A double bed was taking up most of the space in the room, while a set of wardrobes (possibly mirrored) and a chest of drawers sat opposite it. There was a big bookcase to one side of the bed and a bedside table and a window on the other. Clothes lay carpeting the floor.

Vanessa still didn’t let go of Brooke’s hand when she fell down onto the bed, pulling her down with her. Brooke landed with the breath knocked out of her slightly, laying half on top of Vanessa and half at her side. Vanessa naturally thought this was the funniest thing in the world. Brooke tried to clamber off her but wasn’t completely successful, as Vanessa threw both her arms round her waist. The action stopped Brooke dead for a second. Looking down at Vanessa, she could see that her eyes were slightly glazed and she still had a big, goofy smile on her face. Time seemed to stand still, the only thing moving being Brooke’s pulse racing under her skin. 

“You’re so great, Brooke,” Vanessa sighed quietly, looking up at her and smiling. Brooke didn’t really know what to reply. 

“You’re great,” she ended up saying, trying once again to roll onto her side but Vanessa’s arms wouldn’t let her, and Jesus Christ, how had she found herself in this position?

Vanessa seemed to pause for a second, the smile still on her face as she somehow pulled Brooke closer to her. “No, honestly. You’re so great.”

And then Brooke completely froze as Vanessa pushed up a little bit and kissed her once, her lips a little messy against Brooke’s own. Pulling away, the smile was back on Vanessa’s face, giggling as she looked at Brooke’s clearly shocked face. Brooke’s mind was just blank. She had no idea what the fuck was going on, and her nerves were now in overdrive as she realised she didn’t know what to say or do. Still smiling like an idiot, Vanessa solved the problem by pulling Brooke down on top of her and meeting her lips again, this time lingering a little bit more, and with all of the air being knocked out of Brooke’s lungs she realised that they were actually, properly kissing. Still completely confused as to whatever this was, Brooke pulled away. 

“‘Ness,” she whispered, although she wasn’t really sure why. “Don’t do this because you’re drunk.”

“No, I’m doing this because I want to. The fact I’m drunk is just a happy coin...coinident...accident,” she slurred, her arms still firmly around Brooke’s middle. Then, her eyes suddenly became wide. “How come, you wanna to stop?”

Brooke took one look at Vanessa’s beautiful, shocked face and finally registered that what was happening was actually happening, and she wasn’t dreaming it, and it wasn’t a mistake. “Fuck, no.”

With that Vanessa crashed their lips together and they were kissing again, slow and deep and everything that Brooke had wanted for the longest time. Vanessa tasted almost entirely of champagne, and Brooke could still smell her perfume from earlier which only made her kiss her deeper, moving a hand up to tangle in Vanessa’s dark waves of hair. Her heart was beating so fast and their bodies were pressed so close together that Brooke was sure Vanessa would feel how fast her heart was racing. Hearing Vanessa sigh a little against her lips, Brooke felt as if she was stuck in an alternate reality. 

This couldn’t be happening. Things couldn’t have been this perfect. And yet, things were. 

They could have been kissing for hours or minutes, or perhaps seconds. Time had become an alien concept to Brooke. But the first sign of change was Vanessa pushing her hips up an inch from the bed, moaning a little and trailing a hand up Brooke’s thigh. With every iota of willpower that she possessed, Brooke pulled away from Vanessa and sat up, straddling her. 

“‘Ness, you’re drunk.”

Vanessa pouted, bringing one hand up to cup Brooke’s jaw. “Yeah, but so’re you.”

Now that Vanessa pointed it out, Brooke noticed that the amount of adrenaline that was currently running through her veins had rendered her almost completely sober. “I think it’s kind of wearing off a bit. Come on, I’m not doing anything with you when you’re in this state.”

“But I wanna,” Vanessa sighed, stroking Brooke’s cheek. Brooke smiled lazily at her.

“Not tonight, baby,” she said, not without a hint of regret. 

“Well, next time then,” Vanessa said contentedly, smiling up at her. Brooke’s heart almost flipped over. She hadn’t really thought to think past this moment but now she was wondering what the future held in regards to whatever this was. Trying to push the future out of her mind, she just smiled back at Vanessa, touching her cheek before rolling off of her and on to the other side of the bed. 

“Well, I’ll be going, then-”

Vanessa shot her a glare. “Brooke! Come on, you have to stay. I wanna kiss you again when I wake up an’ I’m sober.”

Brooke felt faint at the sheer amount of events that had happened over the course of the evening. She hesitated for a second as she thought her options over, then decided that she’d been responsible enough for one evening and that perhaps she was entitled to one bad decision.

“Okay. I’ll stay,” she paused. “Have you got pyjamas?”

Vanessa leaned over to her bedside table, reaching into a drawer and pulling out two colossal t-shirts. Brooke grabbed one gratefully and began to pull the zip down at the back of her dress. She tried not to look as Vanessa got changed. The night had given her enough heart murmurs for one evening.

Leaving herself in just her underwear, she pulled the huge shirt over her head and climbed into bed with the girl she’d been crushing on for longer than she could remember. Turning on her side, she was surprised that Vanessa shuffled back into her arms, reaching behind and wrapping them around her so that Brooke held her in a cuddle. 

Sighing and still trying to comprehend the way the night had progressed, Brooke suddenly heard a little gasp from Vanessa. 

“Brooke Lynn,” she pointed to the window. “Snow.”

Brooke gave Vanessa a little squeeze and watched as the gentle white flakes drifted from the sky, making to envelop the city in white and render it brand new. 

They watched the snow fall until they fell asleep.


	7. Parliamentary Scrutiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Jackie, Jan and Jaida jet off to Brussels, Brooke, Vanessa and Bianca must work out who leaked the Prime Minister’s legacy. But not everything is as it seems on the surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> your comments mean the world to me, thank you all so much!!!

Brooke sat on the edge of her bed fully dressed in her work clothes, watching the rain batter down against the outside of her window. She was almost there. All she had to do was leave her flat and get the 2 tubes that would take her to Dosac. But something was stopping her, something that had completely sapped her motivation beyond anything she’d experienced before. For once, she didn’t know what she’d do when she arrived at work. She didn’t have the energy to speak to anyone, let alone carry out basic tasks. She had fallen into a routine of lying in her bed, the sheets having long been needing changed, and endlessly refreshing the BBC News app just to make sure the country wasn’t crumbling without her. 

Blinking at the TV in front of her, Brooke saw the smiling face of Widow Von’Du, obnoxiously cheerful for 7.45am.

“And we’ll be reporting throughout the next few days on Jackie Cox’ trip to Brussels, where she will present her policy pitch in an attempt to encourage Britain and indeed Europe to take an increased amount of refugees. It’s been causing quite a stir in parliament, but will it receive the seal of approval from Europe? Raja Gemini will have more on that at 1.”

Brooke watched as a pre-recorded segment played of Jackie walking confidently through Heathrow airport, Jaida and Jan only two steps behind her. Brooke felt an involuntary burn at her heart as she watched Jackie look over her shoulder and give Jan a little smile, jealous of how happy they were together. Trying to be happy for them, Brooke simply shook her head and sighed. The three of them would probably be sitting in the departures lounge by now, their flight not leaving til just after 8. Swiping up on the phone that was already in her hand, Brooke shot a quick text to Jan. 

B:  _safe flight._

The two words were all she could manage. 

Wanting nothing more than to fall back onto the mattress, Brooke closed her eyes, allowing the same shitty memory to play in her head for the millionth time since she arrived home from Vanessa’s flat that awful day.

_ Light was the first thing that Brooke was aware of that morning.  _

_ The second thing was a dull thud of her head and a tense, knotted pain in her neck.  _

_ The third, fourth, fifth and so on came flooding into Brooke’s mind like a tsunami, the events of the previous evening hitting her all at once like a car crash. Her heart began to rattle in her chest at the memories of Vanessa’s lips on hers, Vanessa pleading with her to stay, the warmth of Vanessa’s body against her own as they fell asleep watching the snow fall.  _

_ Except Vanessa wasn’t in the bed with her any more, the sheets and duvet seeming chilly as a result and in turn managing to churn Brooke’s stomach a little as she thought of facing the events of last night. She couldn’t help her heart flutter with hope, though. Vanessa had said there would be a next time, and had suggested that that next time would even be that morning. Surely Brooke’s feelings were actually returned after all? Trying to suppress a smile, Brooke stood up and peered out of the window. The snow that had fallen before they had both drifted off to sleep had been vandalised by the current drizzle of rainfall, turning it to sludge that became more and more grey under the feet of the people that hurried up and down the busy street outside. Feeling a sense of childlike disappointment, Brooke decided to make her way through to the kitchen where she could hear the clatter of various cutlery and crockery indicating someone’s presence. _

_ Padding through the carpeted corridor and onto the freezing black tiles, she tried to ignore the way the cold stung at her feet as she took in the sight of Vanessa Mateo loading the dishwasher, hair piled up on top of her head in the messiest bun imaginable, last night’s smoky makeup smeared across her face like a Picasso painting of a panda, and still probably the most beautiful person Brooke had ever seen. Sensing the arrival of someone else in the room, Vanessa looked up and gave a bright smile.  _

_ “Hey, sunshine,” she beamed, laughing a little as Brooke groaned and rubbed her neck in response. “God, you're a vision this mornin'. You want some coffee? Got some brewing just now.” _

_ Not yet trusting herself to speak, Brooke simply nodded and took a seat at the breakfast bar that Vanessa was currently hurrying around. Grabbing a huge cafetiere that held a considerable amount of inky black liquid, Vanessa carried it from one kitchen counter and placed it in front of Brooke, magicking two cups from a cupboard underneath the breakfast bar. As Vanessa poured Brooke just sat and regarded the scene in front of her, part of her feeling like she was in a dream. She tried to think of something to say that would mean she wasn’t the one bringing up the events of last night first. As Vanessa passed her a full cup, Brooke decided to forego the milk and took a sip.  _

_ “So how are you feeling this morning?” she asked her, a little hesitantly. Vanessa simply raised her eyebrows and exhaled.  _

_ “Like a can 'a shit,” she replied, taking a sip of her own drink. As if something had occurred to her, she smiled gratefully at Brooke. “Thanks for lookin' after me last night.” _

_ Brooke wasn’t really sure if that was supposed to hold a certain undertone. Settling on a tone that was just a shade away from flirting, she shrugged and gave a smirk. “Oh, I mean, anytime. It was no problem at all.” _

_ Vanessa replied with a little laugh, her fingers curling round the handle of her cup. “I texted some of the comms girls to see if they wanted a Spoons. Feel like it’s the only thing that’ll save me right now. You down?” _

_ Brooke blinked a little. So clearly nothing was on the cards this morning. “Um, sure, yeah.” _

_ A small chill went up her spine. Did Vanessa even remember? _

_ “I can lend you clothes an' stuff and you can just give them back to me at work.” _

_ Giving a lazy smile, Brooke allowed herself to poke a little fun. “I don’t know, I mean, do you not shop in the kids' section? Mrs Built-like-a-fridge?" _

_ Snorting a laugh, Vanessa thumped Brooke on the arm. “You’re the fuckin' worst. I’m gonna go get changed. Do you wanna shower or do you wanna just marinade in your own hungover sweat and fear from last night like I’m doing?” _

_ Brooke gave an anaemic laugh. “Sweat and fear sounds fine.” _

_ Brooke’s memory starts to filter out the events it seems to deign unimportant from then on, and pictures blur in her head; Vanessa shoving a simple jeans-and-top combo into Brooke’s arms, Vanessa lending her some pine-scented men’s aerosol deodorant (“Don’t judge, it smells like a forest!”), Brooke sitting on the bed for a few moments as Vanessa left her alone to get changed and wondering what was going on inside Vanessa’s head. Maybe she was just nervous like Brooke was, tiptoeing around the subject of last night in complete parallel to Brooke’s own thinking.  _

_ Satisfied with her reasoning, Brooke got changed quickly. Her brain blurs out the details of what she did with her ball dress from the night before, but a Tesco bag stuffed with diamantes that sits in one corner of her studio flat solves that particular mystery. She met Vanessa in the corridor and they left the flat together, braving the two- tube journey to Camden as it was home to the nearest Wetherspoons to Adore, who was apparently claiming that her head would fall off if she had to venture more than 10 metres from her flat.  _

_ It was when they were on the escalator that carried them out of the tube station and into the light of the rainy December day that it happened.  _

_ “I’d murder any one of these people for a Fanta right now,” Vanessa whined, leaning against the rubbery handrail of the escalator. Brooke smirked.  _

_ “You sound like Bianca,” she remarked, remembering the spin doctor’s bizarre love of the fizzy orange drink. “She actually looked half decent last night. I was quite surprised. She’s got taste outside of pencil skirts and suit trousers.” _

_ Vanessa tilted her head to the side and scrunched up her face. “Really? I mean, I wouldn’t know.” _

_ Brooke looked at her a little funny. “Oh, come on, ‘Ness. You must remember that blue gown, it was iconic. I don’t think the Daily Mail will ever stop talking about it.” _

_ Vanessa laughed and shook her head somewhat self-disparagingly. “Bitch, I don’t remember anything from last night!” _

_ And then Brooke’s world had stopped completely dead. Nothing seemed to move, least of all her pulse which felt as if it was completely ice. She gave a sort of choked laugh, conscious of the knowledge she had to move the conversation along and act normal, but she could already feel her heart sinking very slowly into the pit of her stomach, lowered along with the hopes she had raised so high. “Wait, nothing at all?” _

_ Vanessa just shrugged. “Nothin’ past when we were chatting to Bianca and that ITV intern, and even that is just basically mush. Like I got no idea what I said or did,” Vanessa shrugged, suddenly laughing and touching Brooke’s arm. “I woke up and I was like…why the fuck is Brooke Lynn in my bed?! I had to text Jan. She told me you got me home safe, so you got fifty good friend points from me. Bitch gets none. Apparently she stayed with Jackie and…” _

_ Brooke began to tune out, her brain completely freezing over. She felt a sort of sick feeling rise in her throat. Vomit? No. Panic, embarrassment? She couldn’t distinguish her emotions any more. Everything was happening so quickly and yet in some form of horrific slow-motion. A scene from a horror movie playing out in front of her that she couldn’t look away from. All at once, Brooke experienced what she would later describe as fight or flight impulse. Looking down to the bottom of the escalator, her instincts grabbed at the latter.  _

_ Cutting Vanessa off mid-sentence, Brooke made her excuses. “I’ve just realised I’m, erm…left something…on the train. I need to go back and get it…I need to go….” _

_ As the escalator reached its peak, Brooke found herself rushing down the adjacent stairs, almost tripping down them in her haste to get away from the situation. Vanessa was left bemused at the top of the staircase, bathed in daylight as Brooke ran further into the dark of the underground.  _

_ She trudged back to her flat when the tube reached Clapham, the snow becoming ever more muddied underneath her feet and turning to dark sludge. As she got to her front door and climbed the two flights of stairs to her studio apartment, Brooke felt it seemed overwhelmingly more depressing than usual.  _

_ The last thing she remembers from that day is lying back on her bed, hugging her arms tightly around herself, breathing in the scent of Vanessa’s fabric conditioner against her skin and feeling as if her heart was rotting.  _

Her heart hadn’t really returned to normal, she supposed, finally making to stand up from where she had been perched at the end of her bed and turning her TV off. Grabbing her coat off the back of her front door, she made to wrap herself up before a buzz from her phone stopped her in her tracks. 

_ J: about to take off!! will keep you and Ness updated. love you loads!! _

Brooke gave a half-smile of affection, before her heart turned gradually cold as she couldn’t help but hit the contact that appeared a couple of messages down. 

_ V: Hope you found whatever it was you left! We all missed you so much at Spoons! Still so hungover lmao x _

_ V: Merry Christmas!! Don’t know anyone who deserves a holiday more than you! Hope you have the best day ever x _

_ V: HAPPT NEW YEAR!!!!!! hope ths year is the BEDT EVEF you arw the best gal ib fbd worldxx _

_ V: Kiki and Silk mad e tsi punch and its like 99% teauila lololo wish yoh sere here wifb us I miss youuu xxxxxxxx _

Brooke’s heart felt heavy as she read each message that Vanessa had sent since that day, the wall of cold grey from each individual text seeming somehow apt. She hadn’t once been able to bring herself to reply to any of them. How could she? She’d been an idiot, a total idiot caught up in some weird childish dream of a relationship that obviously was never going to happen. How could she have thought that anything good would come of a drunk evening together? It was the thinking process of an immature little girl; “a drunken mind speaks sober thoughts”, or sometimes a drunken mind just made really poor, ill-judged decisions that formed into memories which rapidly faded along with intoxication overnight, just like the snow that had turned to dirty, scummy water underneath Brooke’s feet. Tucking her phone into her coat pocket, Brooke wondered what she’d say to Vanessa when she saw her at work. The very thought made her ribcage feel as if it was about an inch wide, constricting her lungs and her heart. Brooke had spent the holiday period cursing herself for letting someone else in so far that they couldn’t leave her head, and now that she was less than an hour away from seeing Vanessa for the first time since that evening she hated herself more than ever. Brooke thought bitterly back to the days when her crush on Vanessa had been easy to ignore, something that didn’t totally consume her. 

Christ, she was so overwhelmingly stupid. 

Heaving a sigh and turning the handle on her front door, Brooke stepped out of her flat completely unprepared to face Vanessa, never mind face the day.

Half an hour later, the dread that Brooke had felt when she’d left the flat had only multiplied as she went from one tube station then to another and finally completed her rainy walk to Dosac. Her pulse was hammering underneath her wrists as she crossed from the entrance to the lifts, and the subsequent rise of the elevator only served to counter the sinking of her heart as the offices loomed ever closer. As Brooke got out of the lift and began to make her way to the department, she began to wonder if this was what a heart attack felt like. 

She was so wrapped up in her own anxiety that she almost jumped out of her skin when she turned the corner and sort of collided with Yvie. 

“Brooke! Hey! Happy New Year! Bet you’re glad to be back in this glass-fronted hell hole,” her friend had begun cheerfully, stopping when she saw what must have been visible panic on Brooke’s face despite her best efforts to internalise everything. “Shit, is it really that bad?”

Brooke only looked to the floor. She wished she could muster up something to say, but her nerves had an iron grip on her tongue. Yvie narrowed her eyes. 

“Hey bitch, what’s the matter? You’re sort of scaring me. And I haven’t been scared since 1997.”

She wanted to tell Yvie. She wanted to tell her everything. Brooke had never been closer to opening up to someone again in her life. Remembering how well that particular endeavour had gone in the past, however, she shook her rain-damp waves of hair out of her face and took a deep breath, putting on the front she was so well acquainted with. 

“Sorry, Yvie. I’m fine, honestly. I’m just…” Brooke sighed. Her mouth had worked faster than her brain could catch up with and now she was reaching for an excuse. “…all this shit with the PM’s legacy is still ongoing, and I feel like this department is on tenterhooks until we find out who leaked to the opposition.”

Yvie seemed to accept the excuse. “Well, it’s a shitty time, but we still don’t know if it came from within this department. We could be in the clear within the next couple of days. Isn’t Bianca on it?”

Brooke exhaled sharply. “Bianca’s got the PM breathing down her neck about 101 different things at the moment. I doubt she’ll have room to breathe, never mind do what she does best.”

“Yeah, I feel like her diet might be a little deficient in cabinet ministers for a while,” Yvie laughed, hitting Brooke on the back with the sleeve of her cable-knit jumper full of chunky holes. “Anyway, I was about to make some coffee for me and Scarlet. I managed to avoid becoming the department barista, but I could make a special exception for you as long as you don’t tell anyone.”

Brooke couldn’t help but muster a weak laugh at Yvie’s turn of phrase. “I’ll take the fact that you made me a Nescafé one single time to the grave, Yves.”

Shaking her head, Brooke continued down the corridor. Her conversation with Yvie had served to lift her spirits, but replaying the conversation in her head only brought them back down. She hadn’t really been lying; politically, Dosac’s situation was dire too. The PM’s legacy had been spoilt; if the opposition had become privy to it before its release it was basically unusable, and so it had been dropped by the party. Jackie had been called in front of Bianca after the ball, interrogated to within an inch of her life. However, sure enough there was no proof that a leak to the opposition had come from Jackie. Bianca had briefed so many cabinet ministers in a bid to prepare them to suck up to the policy but Jackie was particularly in the frame because of her fierce opposition to it. There had been some rumblings of other newer ministers disliking it, but none had been foolish enough to speak out as loudly as Jackie had. Currently in Jackie’s case she was guilty until proven innocent. Rumour had it that she had almost been forbidden to go to Brussels, however that had clearly either been untrue since its conception or Bianca had changed her mind somehow. Brooke was a little shocked that Jackie had still been allowed to go. It was clear that her outlook on the refugee crisis was jarringly different to the majority of the party’s, and it was only a matter of time before the media picked up on the cracks threatening to divide the party. However, as long as absolutely nothing about the PM’s legacy appeared in the papers Brooke would consider that a win. True to their word, Gigi and Crystal had delivered, and Nicky’s press conference had been cancelled last-minute. Brooke would have owed them one if it wasn’t for the fact they were reprehensible human beings. 

So the main atmosphere in the Dosac offices wasn’t going to be a particularly happy one until their department’s name was cleared. Almost wanting to laugh at how absolutely shit a situation both her personal and working lives were in, Brooke swallowed her fear and turned a corner into the offices. The previously quiet working environment was disrupted by a cry of joy from the comms team, Scarlet, Adore and Nina all eager to welcome Brooke back after the holidays. 

“Happy New Year, girl!” Scarlet cried, her voice soaring over the other girls’. “God, we missed you on New Year’s eve. We almost crashed Jools Holland because Akeria said she knew this guy that worked on security for BBC that could’ve let us in, but Vanessa passed out in a pool of her own sick so that idea got fucked to one side very quickly.”

“Jeez, Scarlet, can you stop tellin’ that story?” came a recognisable voice behind Brooke which was uncharacteristically quiet. Turning quickly, Brooke was struck by how embarrassed Vanessa looked. Normally everyone’s drunk shenanigans got spread around the office like fair game but Vanessa seemed to take issue with it today. There was something else off about her too; something a little subdued and muted which contrasted her usually bubbly and lively self. All of this was an afterthought, however, to Brooke’s heartbeat which was currently rocketing through her body at what was surely an unhealthy speed. 

“Hey,” Brooke found herself sort of blurting out, the nerves and pressure commanding her to say something. “Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year to you too,” Vanessa gave a small smile, clearly making an effort to appear as if she felt totally normal. “You have a good holiday?”

Brooke felt the memories of Christmas and New Year at her family home flash quickly through her mind all at once, the pain of just remembering them akin to that of a searing migraine. “Um. Well, you know, always good to get back into the swing of things, right?”

Vanessa nodded understandingly as Brooke retrospectively became aware of not having answered her question. Suddenly, she realised she hadn’t asked about Vanessa’s own Christmas. 

“How was yours?”

Vanessa shrugged, a small smile playing on her lips. “Aw, y’know, classic migrant Christmas. Grainy Skype connection of my family watching me open my presents an’ then ITV2’s finest selection of Christmas films in front of the sofa. Chicken chow mein for Christmas dinner is kinda underrated, right?”

Brooke watched as Vanessa gave a small laugh and she couldn’t help her heart hurting. Vanessa had spent Christmas alone? 

“Anyway, budget refinement today. Back to work with a fuckin’ bump,” she shrugged, seemingly eager to move the conversation along. Brooke could cope with that. The less time spent talking about the holidays, the better. 

As Yvie rounded the corner and shoved a pale cup of tea into Brooke’s hands, Nina piped up from behind her monitor. 

“So as all of us are now here, are we able to be briefed on the current situation with Jackie?”

Brooke looked to Vanessa, who was already looking to her. The department already seemed so lifeless without Jackie, Jan, or even Jaida, and Brooke felt weird having only she and Vanessa in charge of the four civil servants. Luckily Vanessa opened her mouth, as Brooke still didn’t really trust herself to speak. Yvie, Scarlet and Adore listened with intrigue, the three of them completely oblivious as to what was going on. 

“Okay, so for those of you who don’t know,” Vanessa began, disregarding the fact that all but one of the comms team fell into that category. “The Prime Minister was meant to announce a policy which was gonna serve as his legacy in the New Year. Bianca briefed all the ministers on it. Jackie was very vocal about the fact she didn’t like the policy an’ she told Bianca she’d challenge it in parliament. Anyway, basically somehow the policy got leaked to the opposition. They were gonna announce it before Christmas as one of theirs, but somehow they didn’t. It ain’t a party policy anymore for obvious reasons, but essentially Jackie’s in the frame for leakin' it.”

“Shit. Did she do it?” Adore gasped, seemingly in awe. Vanessa pulled a face. 

“She’s saying she didn’t and we’re all hoping to God she’s telling the truth, but you know how politics works,” Brooke spoke up, feeling unable to stay silent for much longer than she had been. “So the reason why we’re telling you ladies is this- this hasn’t been caught by the media yet. The opposition haven’t leaked it because there’ll be too many questions as to why it wasn’t announced, and we haven’t leaked it because none of us have a fucking death wish. So if you start getting any calls about this, even a whiff, you need to tell us so we can sit on it.”

Adore giggled behind her hand. “Times like these I wish Darienne was still here. If she sat on something-” 

“Adore, don’t make a fuckin’ fat joke. This is serious shit,” Vanessa snapped harshly, shocking everyone save Nina who was still not quite fully awake. Yvie blinked a little at Brooke, who was too taken aback to even react. “You get any calls about anythin’, no comment the shit outta it.”

Brooke frowned a little. “Is that the best idea? Then the papers will know they’re onto something because we’re not denying it.”

“Well what else do we say, Brooke?” Vanessa asked, her tone not quite free of its bite from before. 

Her brain hurt too much to come up with an alternative, so Brooke simply shrugged. 

“No comment. An’ tell us. That’s all we’re askin’ from you girls,” Vanessa said firmly, making to return to her seat. Brooke was still hovering by Scarlet’s desk, and the other girl looked up at her from her place by the phone. 

“Um…is Vanessa okay?” Brooke murmured, unable to ignore the fact that something was clearly up with her. 

Scarlet looked momentarily like she wanted to get something off her chest. Instead, she simply exhaled loudly. “…yeah. Yeah, no, she’s fine.”

Brooke raised one eyebrow at Scarlet, whose shoulders slumped forward in a sigh. “Look, just go talk to her. I think she’s embarrassed about the general events of New Years’.”

Adore took a break from typing away at her phone to interject. “She mentioned you a lot, Brooke. Said you should’ve been there and that she missed you and all that-”

“I mean it was just classic drunk girl talk really,” Scarlet interrupted, shooting Adore a look that Brooke couldn’t quite decipher. “But she’s being a bit down on herself. You always seem to cheer her up, though. I think she’d be grateful for you.”

Brooke hovered at the desk for another second before swallowing her nerves and crossing the office, following Scarlet’s advice. She was deep in concentration, a calculator in one hand and her mouse in the other, trying to shave a few more pounds off the budget Jackie had already planned out. She jumped a little as she registered Brooke was at her side.

“Sorry,” Brooke apologised, her voice quiet. “I just wanted to check up on you. You don’t seem yourself today.”

Vanessa gave a small smile, appearing to appreciate the concern. “Yeah, I’m honestly fine. Just wish Scarlet would stop bringin’ up what happened at New Years’ to everyone.”

Brooke wanted to point out that she’d only mentioned it once, but stopped herself. “Don’t be embarrassed, girl, it’s a Silky Ganache party. People probably did far worse.”

Vanessa laughed at a sudden memory. “Adore did start eating dog food at one point.”

Brooke gagged. “That’s so, so much worse.”

Snorting a little, Vanessa smiled up at Brooke. “You’re a good friend. Thanks for makin’ me feel less shitty about my life choices.”

She knew it was meant to be a genuine thank you, but every word felt like a knife in Brooke’s stomach. Feeling a little sick, Brooke just shot back a smile she hoped didn’t appear as fake as it felt. 

“I’ll, uh. Just get on with this budget then?” Vanessa said quietly, something about her now appearing a little nervous. Silently, Brooke nodded, hesitating a little before returning to her own seat and finally beginning her work, unsure if she felt worse or better than she had when she’d first arrived at work.

***

So far, the day had been manageable. They had made it to lunchtime unscathed, and Brooke had been able to shave about 50p off the budget, which in budget-shaving terms was not the most horrific saving ever made. As a sort of celebration of making it to lunchtime of their first day back in the office Scarlet had bought them all cakes from Greggs as a treat, and the comms team and advisors were sitting together on their lunch break eating them. Brooke couldn’t quite manage hers, still feeling as if she was walking on eggshells around Vanessa, but the gesture was appreciated all the same. 

“You guys don’t think it’s weird we ain’t had a visit from Bianca yet today? I would have thought she woulda been at us like a three headed fuckin’ dog,” Vanessa mused, nibbling a jam doughnut. 

Brooke exhaled noisily. “I doubt she’s out the PM’s office yet, to be honest.”

There was a pause as everyone munched. Nina broke the silence. “Can someone stick the telly on?”

“Oh, God no,” Brooke groaned. “I don’t want to have to listen to fucking Raja Gemini tearing Jackie’s Brussels visit apart. She’s probably only been in one meeting but according to the BBC in that short time she’ll have anally fucked the country with a rubber fist.”

A roar of laughter came from the table, the truth of Brooke’s statement hanging heavy in the air as it died down. The media hadn’t really warmed back to Jackie since her Five Live interview and they all knew a good summit in Brussels was what she needed. Adore spoke up without taking her eyes, or indeed fingers, off her phone.

“Jaida texted me earlier. Apparently the hotel they’re staying in is amazing, I’m so jealous. The booking got completely fucked up though, so she’s in a room on her own and Jackie and Jan have to share a double. How shit is that?”

Brooke felt as if she’d been shocked with a tazer as the table all nodded and told their own shitty hotel experience stories. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she shot a text across to Jan. 

_ B: “Hi, my name’s Jan-the-hotel-messed-up-our-booking-and-oh-no-me-and-Jackie-have-to-share-a-bed. Could I be any more cliché???” _

Her phone buzzed almost instantly with a reply of three moon emojis from Jan. 

Just as Nina was launching into a story about a hotel room so mouldy it had allegedly given Monét asthma, a single phone began to ring from the comms desks. Brooke looked at Vanessa, her heart beginning to slowly sink into her chest and intuitively knowing that somehow, something was about to go down.

“Can someone get that?” Adore asked lazily, continuing to type into her phone. Nina narrowed her eyes at her. 

“Why don’t you get it? It’s your job just as much as it is mine.”

“I’m on my lunch break.”

Yvie exploded a laugh. “We’re all on our lunch break.”

With an exaggerated sigh Scarlet slid off her chair in resignation, walking over to the phone and lifting it off the receiver. With a long-suffering smile, she answered it.

“Hello, Dosac, comms?” she sing-songed down the phone. Suddenly, her cheerful pink face became very ashen and grave. “…no, we are not prepared to comment on that at this particular moment in time. Thank you.”

Jumping a little, Scarlet sort of dropped the phone back in the receiver and looked back to the others, who were all still and silent. 

“I think it might be out-” she began. With what bordered on comedic timing, two other phones began to ring. As more and more phones started ringing across the office Brooke swore and rushed over to her own desk, briefly meeting Vanessa’s eyes and sharing a look of sheer panic. Lifting her own phone from the receiver, she was met with the voice of Ginger from The Mirror.

“Hi Ginger...no, no we’re not commenting on that at the moment. No, I can’t speak off the record. Is that all? Thank you. Bye.”

No sooner than Brooke had put the phone down than it began to ring again. Stepping back, Brooke only blinked at it in detachment. How had this happened? How did this get out?

Looking around the office, her eyes shot to Vanessa, who had given an incredulous cry down the phone. 

“What?!...No, I can categorically state that Jackie Cox will _not_ be resigning over this! Goodbye!” she cried, slamming the phone down and looking across to comms. “We’re now gettin’ calls about resigning? What the fuck is goin’ on?!”

“Um, guys…” Adore said, her voice wavering a little. “Anyone checked the ITV website recently?”

After a beat of silence, the ringing phones were ignored as everyone flew to their computers, typing frantically. The biggest, boldest headline on the homepage of the ITV News website was,

“ITV EXCLUSIVE: JACKIE COX LEAKS PRIME MINISTER’S “LEGACY” TO OPPOSITION, RAISES CALLS FOR RESIGNATION”

As Brooke read she discovered that every line of the article contained every single detail; what the legacy had been, why Jackie had allegedly leaked it, what could or should happen now- and a quote from Nicky leading the charge for a resignation. Reading and re-reading as if she was in some horrific nightmare, Brooke noticed a particular line that caught her attention. 

“ _A source at Dosac said that Ms Cox was in the frame for the leak, stating that she had been opposed to the policy and had been willing to take any measures to stop it from going ahead_ ,” Brooke muttered under her breath, her brain feeling more scrambled than ever. As the comms team talked amongst themselves quietly, Brooke caught Vanessa’s eye and beckoned her over. Still as nervous as she was to be around her, there was something really weird going on, and with Jackie away and Bianca not around it was their job to solve it. Vanessa click-clacked softly across the carpeted floor. 

“Are you seeing the same thing I’m seeing here?” Brooke asked her quietly, pointing to the line in question on the screen with a talon of a fake nail. Vanessa pulled a face. 

“I mean I did wonder, but y’know what the media are like, B. They coulda found someone who breathed outside the department once in 2003 and they’d use ‘em as a source.”

Scrunching up her face, Brooke tapped her foot on the floor, something about it still not sitting right. “I don’t know, ‘Ness. This is worrying me. I mean what if it was one of the comms girls?”

“C’mon, Brooke, they’re our friends. We know ‘em. They wouldn’t go to the press about this kinda thing,” Vanessa pleaded, her tone seeming to convey that something inside her agreed with what Brooke was saying. Brooke’s face softened. She knew that the last thing Vanessa wanted to do was to accuse her friends of anything- hell, it wasn’t on the top list of things Brooke wanted to do either- but it was hard not to think anything else in the situation. 

“V, this managed to stay silent from Alyssa’s ball to this morning. The moment we told those girls about what had happened, it was out by lunchtime. Is that a coincidence?” 

Vanessa’s face fell as she seemed to finally accept what Brooke was saying. “So what do we do?”

Sighing and scrunching one side of her hair up with her hand, Brooke thought about it. “They’re still our friends. I think we have to just be honest with them. I’m sure they’ll understand, they know how shit works in politics. Take them off the phones, email, maybe their own phones. It’s shit, but I don’t see anything else we can do.”

Heaving a sigh and rubbing the back of her neck, Vanessa looked at Brooke in despair. “Okay. Let’s tell ‘em.”

Brooke’s heart felt heavy as she walked over to the comms team. Today was already completely shit, and now she was about to accuse some of the nicest girls she’d worked with of being traitors. Thinking about it, she just couldn’t envisage any of them working in secret with the opposition or the media. Yvie and Scarlet had always worked for the civil service- they were always pretty nonplussed about what was happening in the department and weren’t really bothered about anything as long as they got to spend their working day together. Adore was Adore- just here for the fact that it was a steady job, hardly did any work anyway and spent most of the day on Instagram. If she barely had any energy to clear a paper jam, she certainly wouldn’t have the energy to orchestrate an elaborate plan to take down the government. Then there was Nina- happy enough to get home in time to watch the soap operas and cuddle with her wife. Brooke couldn’t really see Nina caring enough about anything work-related to attempt to sabotage Jackie. It was a weird situation. 

“So, you’ve all read the article,” Brooke started, deciding to be the one to talk. “I’m sure you all know the bit that we’re going to refer to when we say that it’s put us in a kind of awkward position.”

The girls from comms looked at her in silence, recognition in their eyes. Brooke took that as a cue to carry on. 

“It sucks, because neither me or ‘Ness think you guys are involved in anything. But just as a precautionary measure, we need to take you off the phones. That means all phones, so no mobiles until we figure out what’s happening. And stay off the computers too.”

Nina’s face became screwed up and her stance instantly became defensive. “I’m sorry, Brooke, but that’s ridiculous. Our job is communications, for Christ’s sake, we need to be able to communicate!”

“Well someone’s clearly been communicating to the wrong people,” Brooke snapped, earning a glare from Yvie. 

“What’s that supposed to mean? I thought you didn’t think any of us were involved, but that sounds like you’re accusing one of us of something?”

“Yves…” Scarlet soothed, resting a hand on her girlfriend’s arm. Still bristling with anger, Yvie sat at her desk with a thud. 

“Brooke didn’t mean that. You’re all our friends, we don’t mean to be accusatory at all. But we don’t know what else to do,” Vanessa sighed, visibly upset with having to put her friends in this position. 

Brooke caught a glance of Adore typing rapidly into her phone. “Adore, come on. This is serious.”

Adore jumped a little, putting her phone face down on the desk. “Sorry! Look, not touching it now.”

Rolling her eyes, Brooke scuffed her foot along the floor. “I’m sorry, ladies. We don’t mean to make any of you out to be double agents. But that article’s got us really rattled. Look, just chill for now and me and Vanessa will try to get a hold of Bianca to come help us out of this mess. Until then, please just bear with us?”

Shaking her head, Nina sat down at her desk and crossed her arms. “This is a joke.”

Brooke looked at Vanessa and gave a loud exhale. She felt awful. Nothing about the situation made sense and yet they were having to work from nothing. It was all just a huge mess which managed to consist of nothing tangible, which was the most frustrating part. 

“Right, you turn off the phones then phone Bianca and see if she can come by and help get us out of this mess,” Brooke instructed Vanessa, as an idea occurred to her. “I’m going to check out that article again.”

As Vanessa searched for Bianca’s name in the contacts of her phone, Brooke scrolled up to the top of the article to see who the author was. The name had some amount of recognition, but Brooke couldn’t place how she knew it from. Walking back over to the comms girls, she was met with a frosty reception. 

“Do any of you girls know a Valentina Leyva?” Brooke asked, ignoring the atmosphere. All but Nina shook their heads. 

“If it’s the girl that’s an intern at ITV then yes. Bianca introduced us at Alyssa’s ball, remember?”

Brooke blinked a little, trying to put a face to a name. Then suddenly, it clicked- the shy, seemingly sweet and harmless girl that had conversed politely with them didn’t seem to match the scheming article that she had supposedly written. Trying to make sense of things Brooke ran a hand through her hair, turning away from the comms desks and loudly exhaling. Before she could piece anything together, her phone began to buzz in her hand. It was Jackie.

Dreading the voice on the other end of the line, Brooke swiped across the screen to answer the call. “Hey, Jackie.”

“I want to know how in the space of one meeting I could come out with my phone absolutely red hot with calls, notifications and texts, all of which are calling me a party traitor and telling me to resign,” Jackie’s voice shook a little, betraying the cold, measured tone she was using. 

“Yeah, uh…the legacy thing got out. Vanessa’s phoning Bianca, she’s going to come round and we’re firefighting the whole thing. We’re on it, you’re not going to look like the bad guy for long,” Brooke insisted, her stomach in knots. Trying her best to reassure Jackie was difficult when Brooke didn’t even know if she could believe what she herself was saying. A huge sigh came down the line. 

“The media damn well hate me already without me having this to contend with.”

“At least Buzzfeed loves you?” Brooke tried to console her, remembering Kimora Blac’s article that had appeared a few days after Alyssa’s ball;  _I met the Minister for Dosac Jackie Cox and yes, she really is as awesome as everyone on Twitter is saying._

“Fucking Buzzfeed! They’re a pack of gibbering lunatics!”

“Oh, come on, you weren’t saying that at Alyssa’s ball,” Brooke couldn’t help but deadpan. 

“Shut up, Brooke,” Jackie snapped down the line, Brooke instantly knowing that perhaps any kind of joke right now wouldn’t be ideal. “Jesus, is this how bad it is? I’m supposed to be elated that I’ve got Buzzfeed on my side? God, this trip was supposed to be my comeback, some redemption after Five Live. Now I’m stuck in Brussels as my political credibility crumbles to death from afar?”

“Stop being melodramatic,” Brooke rolled her eyes, eager to get back to solving the problem and hoping she could palm Jackie’s whining onto Jan. “Politicians encounter shit like this all the time, the party’s just looking for someone to blame and you happen to be that person. It’ll all turn out fine, it always does! Just…keep slaying Brussels like I know you will be. They’ll love you.”

Jackie smirked quietly on the other end of the line. “Okay. Yeah, I’m sure you’re right, Brooke. As always, you’re amazing. Keep me updated, okay?”

As Jackie said goodbye and hung up, Brooke was stuck with the feeling that the conversation had had a weird ending. 

She couldn’t think about it for too long, however, as Vanessa was walking quickly over to her, phone in her hand. 

“Bianca’s on her way,” she said, biting her lip and holding it between her teeth nervously. “She should be here soon.”

As Brooke cast a glance at the annoyed comms team and back at the article sitting on the monitor’s screen, she could only hope that Vanessa was right. 

***

Bianca arrived into Dosac fifteen minutes later with a face like a hurricane and body language to match. 

“I swear to Christ if this department is the cause of any more drama in this fucking government I’ll shove you all into a cannon and blow your bodies to bits,” she seethed by way of a greeting as she stormed towards Vanessa’s desk. “I have had an incredibly stressful morning so I’d like to know, in as few words as possible, what in the fuck is going on.”

Seemingly less scared and more comforted by Bianca’s presence, Vanessa began talking. “So ITV’s source apparently came from within this department. Of course we don’t wanna accuse anyone, but since it’s only us working at the moment we took all comms off phones and email access.”

Bianca’s face twitched into a grimace. “So they’ve been standing about doing fuck all for half an hour but at least they haven’t been leaking like a new mother without a Tena Lady. Anything else I should know?”

“We’re trying to find intel on the girl that wrote the article. Valentina, you introduced us to her at Alyssa’s,” Brooke cut in. In the time before Bianca’s arrival, Brooke had managed to find her twitter account but it seemed to be the generic tweets of a fresh new journalist- retweeting articles, offering her two cents every so often, and so on. There was nothing that Brooke could really find to link her to anyone in the department. 

“Right,” Bianca nodded, her eyes wide as she processed the information. Swiftly, she turned and bored her gaze into the comms team. “So which one of you fuckers was it then?”

Nina kicked her feet up onto her desk in a defiant manner. “I don’t know, Bianca, and I don’t bloody care. All I want is to get back to doing my fucking job, instead of pissing my life away doing absolutely bugger all when I could be in bed watching Loose Women. So please, hurry up and get solving this arseing mystery, before I pass out from cunting boredom.”

Brooke blinked in shock at Nina. It was the most she’d ever heard her swear and it would’ve been funny, were Bianca not looking at Nina as if she wanted to incinerate her. Opening her mouth, she looked as if she was about to scream at Nina so loudly that her face would drop off. She was stopped with a sort of pained gasp from Vanessa. 

“Okay...” she began, looking at her monitor with a foreboding expression. “…the Guardian now have a timeline on their website…”

“A timeline? What the fuck?” Brooke exclaimed, shock coursing through her whole body as if she’d been shocked by a defibrillator. 

“…stating that Dosac’s press team’ve been taken off communications, and that Bianca’s been seen coming into the building but not leaving.”

“Who the fuck is doing this?! It’s only us in the department!” Brooke cried, fighting the urge to push everything off her desk in a fit of rage and panic. She was completely unable to think, and everything seemed to be spiralling out of her control. Nothing about the situation made sense and the leaks only seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. 

Bianca had stood frozen amidst the new information, her brain working overtime. After a pause, she spoke. “Okay, I am going to phone ITV and attempt to extract some information about this source out of them. Vanessa, if you could phone the Guardian and do the same. Brooke, if you keep digging about this Valentina girl and the connections she has to this department. And we might as well put comms back on the phones; one of them’s leaking despite preventative measures so we might as well have them do something other than completely fuck all.”

Nodding, Vanessa walked briskly over to the switch for the phones and flicked it on. Immediately, every single one of them sprang to life, prompting the comms girls’ hands to fly to them and to immediately start talking. All except Adore, Brooke realised, whose seat was empty. Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Brooke made her way towards Yvie. 

“Where did Adore go?” she asked her, trying to mask the urgency in her voice. Yvie looked up at her, nonplussed. 

“She didn’t say. Check the toilets?” she suggested, quickly taking whoever she had been talking to before off hold. Brooke rushed out of the department, turned left down the corridor and walked quickly towards the toilets, when all of a sudden something made her stop- a flash of black material swept by the wind behind the glass-fronted fire escape door at the end of the hall. Slowly, Brooke made her way towards the door, pushing down on the long handle and flinging it open. Adore stood on the platform that hung high in the air above the city below, leaning on the metal railing. She didn’t flinch. Her face was ghostly pale and she was dragging on a cigarette as she looked down at her phone, completely motionless. Brooke took two steps towards her and leant against the railing, mirroring her body language. 

“Do you want a cigarette?” Adore asked, her gaze not leaving her phone and her voice robotic. Brooke shook her head, then realised Adore wouldn’t be able to see it. 

There was a moment of silence as the wind whirled around them, the rain having been swept away from the city. 

“Adore,” Brooke said firmly, her voice betraying nothing. “Talk to me.”

Adore heaved a huge sigh, finally looking from her phone and tipping her head towards the sky. Squeezing her eyes shut, she squeaked out a single name in a voice that was thick with tears. 

“Laila.”

The information hit Brooke like a ton of bricks. The leak was suddenly so obvious, the journalist with a direct tie to the department in the form of an unsuspecting Adore. Wiping underneath her eyes with one finger, Adore carried on. 

“I would just tell her about my day…keep her updated like girlfriends do…I thought she cared about me, but…”

The small fragments of feelings spilling from Adore’s mouth made Brooke’s heart want to break. Gently, she prised Adore’s phone out of her hand and looked at the conversation on the screen. 

_ L: Packed lunch in the fridge for u! xo _

_ A: You’re the actual bomb dot com. Hope work’s going well xxx _

_ L: Same old shit really. They’re trying to get me to write some article about beauty pageants for 6 year olds and I’d rather kill myself. You at work yet? Anything cool happening? Xo _

_ A: Arrived a little while ago. Jackie’s apparently done something vaguely bad, idk I never pay attention to this stuff xxx _

_ L: Shit will she get in trouble? Xo _

_ A: It sounds pretty serious, apparently she leaked the policy that was meant to be the PM’s legacy? You know that one i told u about _

_ L: !!!!!! _

_ A: Oh wait _

_ A: Apparently she didn’t actually do it but just being scapegoated _

_ L: Aw alright, well she should be fine then!! Hope it doesn’t cause too much of a ballache for you babes xo _

_ A: tysm angel xxx speak to you later xxx _

_ A: also won’t be able to text until I’m out of work. They’ve taken us all off the phones bc of this leak thing. Have a good day xxx  _

As Brooke read the conversation from the day, she felt her heart hurt for the younger girl. Clearly, Adore had fallen for Laila a lot harder than anyone had realised, and what they had was something verging on the domestic side of life. But it was apparent that Laila had sussed out the value of Adore as someone she could gain media intel from, a puppet she could play about with to get the information she wanted. In Laila, Adore had initially seen a newspaper journalist she could fuck to get onside, but it had obviously become so much more than that to her. Laila clearly knew the right things to say and do in order to make Adore believe that they had something special.

Brooke glanced up from Adore’s screen as the civil servant let out a choked sob. “I was the one that told her about the fucking legacy. I overheard that day, when I came into the meeting room the day of Alyssa’s. I thought it was something exciting, I just wanted to share what was going on at work with her…I was the leak. I should be the one everyone’s yelling at, not Jackie.”

Sighing, Brooke pulled Adore into a hug. Having one person walk around the department with their heart broken was bad enough, never mind two. Brooke had so far been too wrapped up in her work to think in any depth about her feelings, but all of a sudden she was being so harshly exposed to this upset and hurt that it was hard not to let her own feelings back in to gnaw at her heart. Feeling Adore’s chest rise and fall rapidly as she cried, Brooke couldn’t help but become a little panicked. If she herself was hurting this much when Vanessa hadn’t even expressed an interest in her, what could it be like in a relationship? 

Had she dodged a massive bullet?

Shaking her head, Brooke pulled out of the hug. “Hey. You don’t deserve to be shouted at, baby, okay? The only mistake you’ve made is getting involved with an asshole journalist. None of this is on you.”

Snuffling and, in the absence of a tissue, wiping her nose on the back of her hand, Adore looked to the metal grating of the fire escape floor sheepishly. “I was falling for her. I was going to tell her I loved her on our next date night.”

Brooke felt like shit on Adore’s behalf. “I’m sorry, Adore. You didn’t deserve her.”

They stood for a moment in the cool January air, Brooke’s head now absent of thoughts. Instead, she didn’t know what to think. Here in front of her was the stark reality of love- pain and crying and upset and absolutely no control over any emotions. It was simultaneously too familiar and too foreign for Brooke to comprehend. Shaking her head to chase away the memories that were threatening to flood her mind, Brooke only clung tighter to the railing, how high up they both were hitting her with a stark clarity. 

“Love sucks,” Adore said bluntly, stubbing out her cigarette and throwing it down into the city below. Brooke thought about giving a snarky or sarcastic answer about how she wouldn’t know, but something moved her mouth for her. 

“I know.”

Adore snapped her head around, giving her an inquisitive look. It seemed as if she was about to follow Brooke’s comment up, so Brooke decided to speak first. 

“We need to go back in there.”

Adore sniffed, looking at the fire escape door as if it was the gates to hell. “Bianca’s going to fire me, isn’t she.”

Brooke considered this for a second. “She won’t. You’re one of the few people I think she actually likes.”

“She doesn’t even know my name,” Adore snorted a laugh, once again wiping her nose on her hand. Brooke cocked a smile at her. 

“Of course she does. She’s asked you to get her a Fanta millions of times.”

Brooke smiled as she earned a small but genuine laugh from Adore. “I’m going to get yelled at though. Let’s be real.”

“Well, at least it won’t come as a surprise,” Brooke pulled a face and shrugged. “Shall we go back in?”

“One second. I need to do something first,” Adore sighed, opening up the messages to Laila again and typing something Brooke could faintly make out as,

_ A: We’re finished. Write a headline on that. _

Smiling at her with reassurance, Brooke laced her hand in Adore’s as they walked back into the warmth of the department together. As they rounded the corner into the offices, Brooke felt Adore tense up beside her as Bianca whipped around to look at the both of them.

“Where did you two disappear off to? Don’t tell me you were fucking, I’d rather you didn’t do that shit at work.”

“Too late for some of us,” Scarlet muttered under her breath to Yvie, who had to visibly stifle her giggles. Focussing on Bianca, Brooke attempted to come up with a way to explain the situation, but Adore spoke before she could even muster up her own voice. 

“We found the leak,” she said bravely, standing up straight beside Brooke. “It was me.”

Bianca blinked very slowly at Adore, as if she was processing what she’d said. “Pardon?”

Brooke cut in before Adore could say any more. “What Adore means is…she’s not the leak. Well, not directly. She’s been seeing Laila McQueen from The Independent.”

She could see Bianca’s breathing becoming more and more laboured, as if she was trying to avoid going into cardiac arrest. Not being able to know if she’d explained herself properly, Brooke continued talking. 

“Seeing as in, in a relationship with her, not seeing as in leaking to her intentionally. She’d tell Laila stories from her work, from the department- just in the way that a girlfriend would do, not intending to spread anything. But of course Laila was just keen to get information, so Adore- without knowing it- leaked information to her. Like the comms team being taken off the phones, and Jackie being accused of the leak…and…” Brooke attempted to bring herself to say it.

“The PM’s legacy,” Adore interrupted, her voice breaking very slightly at the end of her sentence. Vanessa let out an audible gasp. Bianca ran her tongue slowly and deliberately over her teeth. 

“Oh, well, that’s absolutely fine then. In fact why didn’t you just invite her into the department to spend the day with us? Give her a chip to install in the base of Jackie’s skull? Attach a massive novelty size satellite dish the size of the fucking international space station to the side of the building? You might as fucking well have!!” Bianca yelled, her voice rising to a terrifying crescendo as she laid into Adore, the girl just standing stoically and taking Bianca’s wrath. “Jesus fucking Christ, are you absolutely out of your tiny fucking mind?! Telling everything that goes on in a governmental department to a journalist?! I cannot fathom the levels of fucking unbounded ignorance that must take place for someone to do that!”

The department was silent as Adore stood and stared straight ahead, showing a remarkable amount of dignity for someone who Brooke knew was crumbling inside. Taking a deep breath, Bianca appeared to try to regain composure. 

“What do you know about her? We need to know everything. Because she must have a network, this- this can’t just be her work, it’d be all over her own website otherwise. There’s something more to this. Who does she know from ITV?” Bianca rounded on Adore, incessantly questioning. Adore shook her head. 

“She never mentioned any names. She worked with a woman called Trinity, but that’s all I know in terms of workmates. She-” Adore winced as she appeared to realise something. “She hid her phone from me quite a lot, come to think of it.”

“Spare me the fucking sob story,” Bianca snapped, turning and facing the rest of the department. “I want every single fucking thing you can find about this Laila hack bitch immediately. I want her full fucking autobiography presented to me within the next ten minutes. Come on, get on it!”

Brooke watched as Adore stood hesitantly, looking at Bianca for a second before deciding to dash to her desk. Brooke’s heart went out to the girl. She knew how hurt she was and yet she was having to push through and get on with her work. Adore wasn’t the same kind of person that Brooke was; she couldn’t throw herself into her job like she could, wasn’t able to use it as a complete distraction from everything that was going on in her life. She supposed that was something vaguely comforting about work, the fact that it could always serve to remove herself from her personal life. She’d been so distracted with her constant pining for Vanessa that she had forgotten how much she genuinely did enjoy her job. 

She’d zoned out so much that she’d missed Bianca talking to her. 

“Hello? Is anyone in there? Anyone inside that abandoned building site of a brain of yours?” Bianca clicked her fingers in front of Brooke’s unsuspecting gaze, causing her to blink. 

“Sorry, Bianca. It’s all just…a lot.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Bianca raised her eyebrows, briefly showing a slightly vulnerable side which completely took Brooke aback. “This has to be some sort of complex web. I mean, who’s going to listen to a 24 year old journalist who’s only been in the job for a matter of months? I don’t get it. There’s something that doesn’t sit quite right.”

Brooke stood for a moment with the spin doctor as they both remained deep in thought. Something suddenly struck her, one that was so completely obvious but had perhaps been lost in the chaos and confusion of the past five minutes. 

“Laila leaked that policy to the opposition,” Brooke said blankly, Bianca suddenly jerking her head to look Brooke in the eyes. 

“And the prize for stating the fucking obvious goes to,” Bianca said, her voice completely grave. Brooke expected a surge of activity, energy, anything to indicate that Bianca had had a Sherlock moment where all the puzzle pieces just clicked and everything fell into place. Instead, she didn’t move. “But why? Why did she do that? There’s got to be a reason.”

“Money? Blackmail?”

“I can’t think of anything else,” Bianca said sagely, bringing one hand up and rubbing it against her cheek. 

“Ladies,” Vanessa called from her monitor. “Am I goin’ totally insane, or could this mean something?”

Intrigued, Bianca and Brooke shared a glance, then made their way to Vanessa’s monitor. On the screen sat two pictures which made up part of a Daily Mail online article, which seemed to be about Alyssa’s charity ball. The first was of Jackie and Jan, Jackie triumphantly holding a china monstrosity over her head as if it was the world cup. ‘ _Onto a winner- Minister Jackie Cox, pictured with one of her advisors, spends £2000 on a vase despite advocating for lower MP’s salary.’_ was the caption.

“Fuck, they really will find anything to complain about,” Brooke muttered disparagingly, before looking at the second picture. Straight away, she saw what Vanessa had been talking about. 

In the centre of the picture stood Nicky Doll, in the horrifically bridal-esque cream dress she’d been wearing that night and holding a glass of champagne. She was laughing as she chatted to a young girl on her right, with dark skin and a long, straight mane of flowing brown hair who looked slightly smug. The girl from ITV, Valentina, stood on Nicky’s left side and was smiling in a sort of scheming way, as if she knew she had the upper hand over somebody. And there to Valentina’s left was Laila McQueen. She was the only one staring straight at the camera and seemed to be the only one who knew the photo was being taken. As a result she looked a little taken aback, as if she had been caught doing something she wasn’t meant to be doing, or somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. The caption read, “ _The new generation- Shadow Minister Nicky Doll talks politics with media newcomers Laila McQueen (The Independent), Valentina Leyva (ITV), and Naomi Smalls (The Telegraph) (l-r)”_

Brooke shared an intrigued glance with Vanessa as she said exactly what she was thinking. 

“Is it just me or does Laila look…suspicious?” she questioned, looking up at Bianca and meeting her glare. Vanessa looked a little intimidated. “I mean, I could be reading too much into it-”

“No. You’re not. You don’t spend as many years in this line of work without getting to know the face of someone who’s been caught in the act, and that expression is written all over Laila McQueen’s face. She’s afraid in that picture. She knows she shouldn’t have been seen with Nicky,” Bianca cut Vanessa off, her face deep in concentration. Brooke was slightly afraid to even breathe in case she disturbed her train of thought. Bianca suddenly frowned, pointing at the screen. “Bring up this Naomi Smalls’ twitter account. I’ve got the most fucking bizzare idea ever, but it might work.”

Without missing a beat, Vanessa brought up the profile of the young journalist. Bianca pointed a commanding finger next to the “Following” button, which Vanessa dutifully clicked. Naomi’s recent follows read:

_ Valentina Leyva @allaboutvalentina _

_ Laila McQueen @IndependentLaila _

_ Roberta Queen @bob.queen _

_ Asia O’Hara @asiaohara _

_ Rt Hon Nicky Doll MP @NickyDollMP _

As Brooke read the names and tried to connect the dots, it seemed as if Bianca got there before her. 

“Fucking knew it! Rookie mistake, but an obvious one from a 23 year old,” she exclaimed, looking first at Brooke and then to Vanessa. Vanessa seemed to understand too. 

“The head of the opposition, their senior press officer, an’ their spin doctor…” Vanessa began, her eyes wide as if trying to comprehend something. “And the other journalists she was speakin’ to that night…”

Brooke could scarcely handle the situation any more. The web had become too tangled and twisted and weird, and if anything things were now more odd than before. She couldn’t think straight, and she struggled to work out why or how all these names were connected. Bianca seemed to hold the same mindset. 

“Look, ladies,” she sighed, for once appearing totally at her wits’ end. “This is out of your domain. Fuck, it’s almost out of _my_ domain. There’s nothing more I can ask you to do here, I need to go back to number ten and do some serious digging. These people are all connected in some sort of corrupt way, maybe Nicky’s got a hold on them somehow, I don’t know. What I do know is for the next couple of hours before it reaches 5pm you’re all better just trying to get on with whatever tasks Jackie left for you to do.”

Brooke nodded, slightly in awe of the fact that for once, Bianca didn’t seem to have a concrete plan. “If you need us to do anything else, just phone me or ‘Ness.”

Bianca gave Brooke a quick scan up and down. “Appreciated. You did well today, Brooke. And you too, Vanessa. You’re both assets to the department.”

With that, Bianca was on her way back down and around the corner that led her out of the department. Brooke felt her heart swell up at the praise Bianca had given her, going some way to heal the hurt she was still carrying around from this morning. Being left alone with Vanessa again didn’t seem to sting as much as it had all those hours ago. 

“How’s she expect us to just get on with fuckin’ budgeting after all this?!” Vanessa gasped, peering once again at who Naomi Smalls followed. “This is like the Agatha Christie of governmental drama. I can’t concentrate on anythin’ else!”

Brooke felt sort of detached. “Yeah, same. But, you know. Got to keep working on those figures.”

With the feeling that she wasn’t really part of the planet, Brooke walked back to her own desk and sat down, aware that Vanessa was looking at her curiously. 

It seemed to have been the longest day of Brooke’s life, and she couldn’t wait for it to end.

***

Brooke tapped her heeled foot impatiently against the floor as the laptop screen held the promise of a Skype connection. These things could never really be deemed reliable, though, and so with every passing second she grew more irritated. It had been a rollercoaster 24 hours, and she was eager to give Jackie and Jan a full update. Obviously noticing Brooke’s body language Vanessa rested a gentle hand on her leg, which made Brooke feel almost more jittery than before. 

“Be patient. ‘S just taking its time,” she urged her, lifting her hand from Brooke’s thigh.

How did Brooke feel about everything between her and Vanessa since yesterday? The truth was, she wasn’t sure. Of course she still wasn’t completely over how humiliated she’d felt when she discovered Vanessa didn’t remember their kiss, and how much her heart still hurt when she was around her. Would that ever go away? Maybe. Maybe not. But what Brooke did know was that work, even in the past 24 hours, had been an absolute blessing of a distraction. She wasn’t good at love but she was damn good at politics, and the first day back in the department had been so exciting despite the stress. She had forgotten how much she loved her job when she’d been too wrapped up in her feelings for Vanessa, and her performance hadn’t been good. She’d tortured herself wondering about it all overnight when she should have been sleeping, and sitting in the meeting room today she still couldn’t come to a conclusion. 

She did know that her heart still beat just that little bit faster as she sat so close beside Vanessa, Nina on her right side frowning at the monitor. 

“Maybe we need to sign in,” Nina offered, swiping her finger across the track pad with impatience. 

“We’re already signed in,” Brooke rolled her eyes, just as Jackie and Jan popped up on the screen. 

“Yay!” Vanessa cried, throwing her hands up in happiness. “Hey ladies! How’s everythin’?”

“God, screeds better than yesterday, I’ll tell you that for nothing,” Jackie smiled ruefully, running a hand through her dark hair. Her left hand sat at her side out of view in parallel to Jan’s right, and Brooke suspected they were holding hands. “Tell me everything! I want to know every detail.”

Brooke scrunched her face up. “Well, we don’t really know that much. Bianca left the department on a mission at, like, three yesterday. We only woke up to all the headlines. She’s not been in yet today, and it’s almost five so I don’t even know if we’ll see her.”

In true Bianca style, she had managed to uncover everything. The morning after her fitful sleep Brooke had awoken to various notifications from the BBC News app, and the headlines were damning. It had turned out that Nicky, Betty and Bob had created a “graduate journalist funding scheme” for young faces in the media, which was a thinly-veiled disguise for “ _we give you money, you acquire information/write favourable headlines for us_ ”. Naomi, Valentina, and indeed Laila were all involved, and it appeared that the arrangements didn’t just end with young new journalists- Thorgy Thor, a print journalist for The Guardian, was also highly implicated, as was Alexis Michelle from The Times who had reportedly been seen at dinner with Bob at a ridiculously expensive Mayfair restaurant. Basically, the newspapers were in chaos; nobody knew whose side who was on, or what allegiances existed, or which paper leaned which way anymore. What had been made clear was that none of the “funded” journalists were in work anymore, and that the opposition was under major scrutiny. Jackie smiled as she heard the news, leaning back a little on the hotel double bed both she and Jan were sitting on. 

“God, I doubt I’ll ever say this again but I could kiss Bianca Del Rio very emphatically on the mouth.”

Brooke seemed to be the only one that noticed the fake warning look that Jan shot Jackie’s way. 

“Well, we certainly owe her a lot of thanks. I suspect you’ll be given a hero’s welcome when you get back then?” Nina smiled, clearly happy that Jackie’s name had been cleared. Jackie gave a loud exhale and rolled her eyes. 

“Is that a joke? It’ll be business as usual. I doubt anyone that works in Westminster even knows the meaning of the word ‘sorry’. Still, I’ve got a skype interview with my BFF Widow Von’Du at 10 and I can’t wait to drag Nicky’s name through the mud.”

Brooke snorted a laugh at Jackie’s out of character vindictiveness. “What about Brussels, then? I hear the debate went well yesterday.”

Jan instantly jumped in, obviously bursting with pride. “I don’t think she’ll be welcome in Spain anytime soon. She absolutely wiped the floor with Alexis Mateo, should’ve seen her face.”

The two girls both laughed, Jackie pushing Jan playfully on the shoulder. 

“Well, it’s good practice for the party conference whatever the result,” Vanessa smiled encouragingly. Brooke gave her a sideways glance and laughed a little. 

“ ‘Ness, that’s not til March.”

“Early March!” Vanessa insisted, her eyes wide. Turning back to the screen, she continued. “Anyway, I ain’t worried about your performance. Policy presentation tomorrow then?”

Jackie gave a nervous sigh as she nodded her head, her entire aura changing into one of anxiety. Jan gave her a comforting smile. “She’s going to be fine. She’s practiced it so much I’m sick of hearing about the damn thing.”

Jackie smirked at her girlfriend, clearly attempting to be annoyed at her and failing. Brooke smiled involuntarily at their display of affection, little as it was. She didn’t feel as jealous of them both as she had yesterday. “You’ll be alright. We’ll keep bigging you up to everyone tomorrow and the media should love you by the time you’re back.”

“Thanks, guys. You’re doing great,” Jackie smiled at the three of them through the tiny webcam. 

“So do you have anything nice planned for this evening?” Nina asked, clearly eager to divert the conversation from anything work-related at any possible opportunity. 

“We’re both going to this really nice restaurant that the French Prime Minister recommended,” Jan smiled, batting her eyelashes and making fun of her own immodesty. 

“Alright for some,” Vanessa raised her eyebrows, impressed. “Jaida not going with you?”

Both Jackie and Jan seemed to freeze, as if they’d both forgotten poor Jaida existed. Jackie turned out her best excuse. “Oh, she’s been a bit headachey today, so I think she’s just staying in the hotel.”

“Well, give her our best. And good luck for tomorrow!” Nina said. 

“They don’t need luck. You’ll be fine. Speak to you both tomorrow,” Brooke said by way of a goodbye, allowing Vanessa and Nina to wave at the two girls on the other end of the line before closing the laptop shut. Heaving a sigh of relief, Vanessa lay back in her chair. 

“Well, I’m still maintainin’ that those two are fucking,” she shrugged, before rising from her chair and lifting the laptop from the table. 

“For Christ’s sake Vanessa, don’t be ridiculous,” Brooke bit back a little too quickly in her haste to protect Jan, causing Vanessa to sort of stop and blink at her a little. The atmosphere grew frosty, and was only interrupted by a knock on the glass door of the meeting room. Turning around Brooke saw that it was Bianca, looking a lot less stressed than she had been yesterday. 

“There’s the department’s saviour!” Nina cried, seemingly happy for the icebreaker. Bianca gave her a rare smile. 

“Did you see Nicky on the lunchtime news with Raja? I’ve seen maggots that squirmed less. Talking about how ‘the person responsible is being dealt with’, but we all know it’ll be a fucking intern that’s been there for the space of five days that’ll be let go to make up the numbers,” Bianca laughed derisively, earning a snort from Brooke herself. 

“Did you come here to celebrate with us, or was there something you wanted to talk to us about?” she asked, part of her dreading what the answer would be. 

Bianca turned to face Brooke directly. “Yeah, actually. I came to speak to you.”

Brooke shared a glance with both Nina and then Vanessa. “Um...okay. Just me?”

“Yes,” Bianca nodded firmly, looking then at Vanessa and Nina. “So if you two could please make like a tree and fuck off.”

With a muttered “charming” from Nina, the two others left the meeting room leaving Bianca and Brooke alone. Brooke couldn’t help but feel apprehensive, getting the feeling that somehow she was in trouble despite not having done anything. 

“I’ve always found you to be one of the best advisors in the department, Brooke. Well in fact, the party,” Bianca started off, folding her arms across her chest. Brooke was slightly shocked, but mostly her heart was full of something she hadn’t really felt properly in a while. Pride. She knew she was good at her job, but she’d had no idea she was _that_ good. Bianca continued on, seeing Brooke’s slightly shocked expression. “Your performance yesterday was excellent, what I know you’re capable of. You’ve had a weird couple of months work-wise, but yesterday you showed real promise.”

“Well, erm,” Brooke began, struggling to bullshit an excuse. “Maybe I just needed some time away from work.”

Instantly cursing herself for a lie of such incredible proportions, she watched as Bianca uncrossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. 

“Well, whatever you did on holiday that made you bring your a-game back to work, keep doing it,” she said, pausing for a moment before getting to what seemed to be her main point. “You know, in a couple of months there’s going to be a few open positions at number 10. Advisory stuff, things like that. The PM’s looking to get some new blood in. Keep doing what you’re doing and maybe we could see about getting you in there. If that’s something you’re interested in, of course.”

Brooke’s heart almost stopped. She opened her mouth to try and speak, but nothing seemed to want to come out. Instead she just nodded, barely trusting herself to let any words out. 

“Great. Well, stay at that high level you’re at now. I’ll see you tomorrow, I’ve got to go and speak to Adore,” Bianca said, opening the door back into the department and leaving Brooke completely on her own. 

Immediately, Brooke couldn’t feel anything else other than an all-encompassing feeling of euphoria. She’d been noticed and had received affirmation that she was actually good at her job, fuck, amazing at her job. She was finally getting an indication that things might be looking up for her and that she might be moving on to bigger and better things, moving up the ladder like she’d always wanted. It was the best news she could’ve hoped for and just the motivation she needed. 

She stumbled out of the office slightly in a daze, barely noticing Vanessa come up to her at her side. Trying to conceal how happy she was, Brooke turned to her friend. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Vanessa started, her voice seeming nervous. She clasped her hands together and took a deep breath before speaking again. “Um…are we okay?”

Brooke was a little taken aback. She thought that Vanessa’s question had come out of the blue, but looking back on the past few days she had been a little offhand with her, a bit blunt and abrupt and bordering on rude. Feeling a little guilty, Brooke finally concluded that it wasn’t Vanessa’s fault that she didn’t remember a stupid drunk kiss. She couldn’t take her own feelings of rejection out on her forever. 

“Yeah. Yeah, of course we’re okay. Sorry I’ve been kind of shit the past couple of days. Just…glad to be back at work,” Brooke sighed, smiling at Vanessa who gave a relieved smile back. 

“Good. I’m glad you’re alright,” she beamed, Brooke being annoyed at the warmth that Vanessa’s smile still gave her heart. “What’d Bianca want?”

“Oh, nothing really. She was just speaking to me about policy stuff. She’s with Adore now though. No idea why.”

The two girls looked down the corridor where Bianca and Adore stood together, Adore giving a little smile up at the spin doctor. Neither of them could consider it for long though, as a gasp that was sort of mixed with a cry came from Scarlet’s desk. 

“Oh my God,” she said breathlessly, looking down at her phone. Yvie was craning her neck trying to read the message on it, and Nina was standing up at her desk as if she would glean more information. Scarlet looked up and glanced at everyone in the department, her face completely crestfallen. “Silky’s been fired.”

*** 

Shivering in the cold night’s air, Brooke pulled her coat closer around her and leant over to Yvie, the cigarette gripped between her top and bottom lip as the other girl held her lighter underneath it. She never usually smoked, but she’d make an exception for this evening. She somehow felt as if she needed it, and she wasn’t exactly short of people she could bum a cigarette from. Currently it was her, Yvie, Adore and Silky outside their usual pub, huddled together like penguins around the huge silver beer keg that served as both a table and an ashtray. It had been the only logical place to go after work given Silky’s news, and although Brooke still didn’t consider herself close with the girl in any way the promise of a glass of red had been incredibly enticing. Vanessa, Scarlet and even Nina were back inside gathered in the corner on their usual sofas, and Akeria had joined them too as soon as she’d come out of work. They had all been drinking for a good couple of hours now, Silky being the biggest enabler, and Brooke would undoubtedly regret it all tomorrow. Still, she supposed the amount of alcohol in her bloodstream would help her get a good night’s sleep if nothing else. 

“You should go on _This Morning_. Tell the world your harrowing story,” Yvie was telling Silky, the three girls having spent the past ten minutes outside insisting the opposition comms member had a claim for unfair dismissal. Silky laughed and shook her head, flicking some ash from the end of her own cigarette. 

“It’s Jeremy fuckin’ Kyle I’m needing. Although he would shout at me for being on the dole.”

“You’re not on the fucking dole,” Yvie rolled her eyes, shoving the girl’s shoulder with an unexpected amount of force. Silky’s eyes grew suddenly wide.

“Well I’m unemployed, aren’t I? Sounds like a great life though- spend all day pissin’ my life away on the sofa eating’ crisps an’ watching Bargain Hunt. Sounds a lot better than pissin’ my life away working for Nicky.”

Adore frowned deeply, stubbing her own cigarette out on the beer keg. “I still think you have grounds for a court case.”

“Adore, I am not taking a fuckin’ millionare’s daughter to court,” Silky gave her a pointed look. “Besides, it’s a blessing in disguise. I fuckin’ hated that job with every fibre of my being. Literally the only pleasure I got from it was leaking to you guys. They needed someone to make it look like they were dealing with the problem, and that person just happened to be me. I get it. It’s the way it goes.”

“I’d love to see Nicky in court, though. She’d go up in flames as soon as she put her hand on the bible,” Brooke snorted. 

“Bianca would appear to welcome her to hell,” Yvie joined in as the others laughed. That made Brooke think of something. 

“Hey, what did Bianca want to speak to you about earlier, anyway?” she asked, turning to Adore. The younger girl pulled a face and shrugged. 

“Oh, that. Um, it was kinda weird. She apologised to me for yelling at me yesterday.”

Brooke’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Bianca…apologised?!”

“Yeah. I said it was weird. Anyway she said she hoped I was alright and that she was always there if I needed to talk about anything,” Adore shrugged, mumbling a little and looking to the ground. Yvie and Brooke shared an awed glance. 

“We’re talking about Bianca Del Rio? The woman that once told me that if I didn’t produce a coffee for her within the space of five minutes she’d saw off my hands?” Yvie blinked in disbelief. 

“Yes! Who else would I be talking about? Bianca Gascoyne? Bianca...well, I don’t know any other Biancas. That proves my fuckin’ point,” Adore said, a little irritated. Brooke gave a laugh. 

“So that’s your rebound sorted then? Our favourite member of the governmental sphere?”

Adore gave Brooke a look that communicated she was done with her shit. 

“No. I told you guys, that was ages ago. I don’t like Bianca like that anymore,” Adore insisted, the softness of her voice threatening to betray her. Brooke decided not to push her for any more. She’d had a tough couple of days. 

“Good idea. I’ve always thought workplace relationships were highly unprofessional,” Yvie deadpanned, eager to lighten the mood a little.

“How’re you copin’, though, girl?” Silky asked her, obviously thinking the same as Brooke. Adore gave a bitter laugh. 

“Well I went home and cried for a solid two hours last night. Cried in the bathroom today at work. Haven’t eaten since lunchtime yesterday. Overall I’d say I’m doing well,” she smirked self-depreciatingly. Brooke gave her a sympathetic smile. In true Silky fashion, she stubbed her cigarette out decisively and looped her arm through Adore’s. 

“You know what the solution to a broken heart is?” she said, pausing for effect. “Alcohol. Let’s go get shots.”

With that Silky and Adore were gone, leaving Brooke alone with Yvie outside. 

“So, um…how’s your own love life going?” Yvie asked Brooke with a coy smile. Tipping her head to the sky, Brooke rolled her eyes at just how predictable her friend was. 

“I fucking knew you were going to ask me that,” she shook her head, taking another drag. Looking at Yvie’s expectant face, Brooke gave a sort of laugh of disbelief and shook her head. “There’s been no progress, okay? There you are. There’s your answer. You have nothing to work with.”

Yvie looked to the floor, muttering something under her breath. “That’s not what I heard.”

Brooke’s heart felt a little like it was going into cardiac arrest. “What do you mean? Are people talking about us?”

Yvie waved her hands in front of her, presumably in an attempt to calm Brooke down. “No, no, no, nobody’s talking about it. You’re fine. All it was was…”

Yvie stopped and bit her lip, appearing not to want to say what she had planned. Brooke wanted to seem as if she couldn’t care less about what Yvie was going to tell her, but her face completely betrayed her- her were wide with suspense, mouth hanging open just a little as she waited for Yvie to continue. Letting out a held breath, Yvie carried on. 

“God she’d kill me if she knew I was telling you this…at New Year, Vanessa literally wouldn’t shut up about you.”

Brooke’s heart was going at roughly the speed of a runaway train. She was quiet for a few seconds, trying to process the information, but her mind was working too fast for her to be able to do so. 

“What was she saying?” 

“She’d bring you up at every opportunity. _‘Oh, Brooke loves this song!’ ‘Oh, Brooke once told me about a cocktail you can make with whisky, vodka and tomato juice!’ ‘I wish Brooke was here!’ ‘Brooke would’ve loved this!’_. Like…you were like 70% of all she talked about that night.”

Brooke was confused. Scrunching her eyes shut and shaking her head, she tried to correlate that Vanessa to the Vanessa who had woken up with no memory of Alyssa’s ball. It didn’t seem to make sense and if what Yvie was saying was true then her behaviour didn’t add up. 

“Well, she hasn’t said anything to me,” Brooke finally said, not allowing her face to betray any of her feelings.

“Give it time.”

Looking up to the stars that were beginning to emerge in the sky, Brooke thought about Silky and Adore. A casualty of work and a casualty of love, respectively. Silky would be fine; she could always go and get another job somewhere else, and her experience working for the opposition was valuable on any CV. She seemed to be taking it in her stride, all things considered. Adore was different. She hadn’t healed yet, and it would certainly be a while until she recovered from her breakup. She wasn’t in control of her feelings in any way. Silky could just go and find another job but Adore couldn’t immediately move on to someone new without healing first. 

Brooke couldn’t help but think about her own situation. 

Stubbing her cigarette out on the beer keg, Yvie turned to Brooke, having allowed her some time to think in silence. “Should we head back inside? I’m freezing my not inconsiderable tits off out here.”

Without speaking, Brooke simply nodded and crushed her own dead cigarette under her foot. Following behind Yvie she walked back inside the pub, her head full of questions she didn’t have the answers to yet. 


	8. Party Conference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brooke, Jan and Jackie attempt to move past a disturbing event as the Party Conference begins. But as rumours fly about Minister for Justice Sasha Velour’s speech, will the weekend be as successful as they’d hoped?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: threat to life

Finishing the final line in the leaflet she’d been working on, Brooke hit the save button in satisfaction. Looking around her desk, she immediately tried to find the to-do list she’d made and crossed off _Refugee Housing Policy Literature._ She leaned back in her chair and stretched, her back cracking as she interlocked her fingers and lifted her arms high into the air. How long had she been sitting at her desk? Casting an eye over to the clock, she was a little taken aback when she realised it was 5pm. Even if the clock hadn’t been there she probably could have told the time by the office’s human equivalent of a sundial; the comms team were packing up their things, pulling their coats on, and making to leave. 

Brooke supposed she wasn’t that surprised she’d lost track of time. Truth be told, she had almost lost track of what day it was. For the past two months she’d cocooned herself in her work, throwing herself into each job Jackie gave them as Bianca’s hint at a promotion replayed over and over in her mind like a screensaver. It had been all go at the department pretty much since Jackie’s plane had hit the tarmac at Heathrow airport; her presentation at Brussels had been incredibly well-received and the approval from so many other countries pretty much pressured the Prime Minister into backing the policy and giving it the green light, much to the delight of the department and the chagrin of the opposition. Over the past few weeks, Brooke had taken the lead in crafting responses to jabs from Nicky both in the media and in parliament, organising positive coverage and press opportunities from the newspapers, and creating the literature that would be given out at the policy’s official launch a month away. She was exhausted, but it was a good exhaustion, like how Brooke imagined a runner would feel after completing a sprint- she wouldn’t know, she hadn’t run since she was in school- but this job was a sort of series of sprints, Brooke supposed. It was fast-paced and intense and sometimes utterly terrifying, but the euphoria at the end was so worth it. 

She honestly hadn’t given Vanessa a second thought. And her heart definitely didn’t still jump a little as she looked over to her desk and saw her getting ready to go home. In reality, Brooke knew that if she wanted to move up the ladder she didn’t have time to start anything with anyone, not that Vanessa wanted to start anything with her, clearly. Which was fine. Brooke was okay with that, in fact she was completely over it. The whole thing had just been a stupid crush, totally fleeting. Vanessa was just her friend, that was all. 

As Vanessa approached her desk Brooke made that little speech to herself in her mind, just to remind herself that if any old feelings decided to pop up during their conversation it was just a false alarm. Like a fire drill. Not real feelings, just her heart playing tricks on her. 

Work was more important. 

“Hey,” Vanessa smiled, looking at Brooke and then at the clock. “A bunch of us are goin’ over to Silk’s flat for dinner if you wanna join. It’ll probably descend into a wine night an’ I’ve told them a million times that I gotta be up early tomorrow, but of course they won’t listen. You in?”

Vanessa’s face seemed so hopeful and it reminded Brooke of how she’d looked at her when she’d asked her to stay at her flat all those months ago, and then when she’d asked her to stay in her bed. Her heart felt as if it was being wrung out. _Fire drill, fire drill._

“It sounds great, but I’m going to stay and look at these polls Bianca sent over,” Brooke quirked her mouth into an apologetic grimace. Seeing Vanessa’s bright expression falter a little, Brooke felt compelled to add something that would make it better. “Like you said, early start tomorrow, right?”

Just as Brooke had hoped, the smile was back on Vanessa’s face. “Yeah! I’m so buzzed, Jesus. The weather’s meant to be real nice an’ the hotel looks amazing!”

Brooke couldn’t help but crack a smile. “The weather’s not going to matter. We’ll be stuck in conference rooms 90% of the time. Do you think we can ask to do all the debates outside like in primary school?”

As Vanessa gave an amused laugh, Brooke felt her heart thud in her chest. Tucking her hair behind her ears, Vanessa gave her a shy sort of smile. 

“Still, even if it’s gonna be work pretending to be a weekend away, I’m lookin’ forward to it. I’m so excited for us to spend time together again,” she said softly, then gave a sort of cough and backed up. “As in, like, all of us. Me, you, Jan, Jackie. It’ll be fun.”

Brooke tried to stop herself reading into what Vanessa had said. _Fire drill._ “Yeah, no. It’ll be good.”

Vanessa sort of awkwardly hovered at Brooke’s desk, her eyes cast almost nervously to the floor. Brooke felt as if she was made entirely of ice, not wanting to move in case she scared her away as if Vanessa was some sort of forest animal. Just as Vanessa opened her mouth to speak again, Yvie yelled from across the department. 

“Is she coming or what? I’m fucking starving!”

Vanessa furrowed her brow and flared her nostrils, seemingly annoyed at being interrupted. “Nah, she’s staying to do work.”

Scarlet tilted her head to the side and gave Brooke an awed look in response to the information. “You’re staying past five again? Jeez, Brooke, you’ve been working harder than Rihanna and Fifth Harmony combined.”

“Well some of us have got to get shit done around here,” Brooke shrugged nonchalantly. Turning back to Vanessa, she couldn’t help her face softening. “Have a good night. I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early!”

Vanessa gave a small laugh she didn’t quite seem committed to. “Can’t wait. Night, B.”

As Vanessa walked away from her desk, Brooke noticed her shoulders were sort of slumped. 

“Jan! Silk’s?” Adore shouted, distracting Brooke. Jan made a pouty face. 

“Can’t. I’ve still got the debrief from Brussels to write up,” she groaned, leaning on her palm with her chin. 

“That was due ages ago! Jackie’s gonna kill you,” Jaida gasped, shocked. Jan leaned back in her chair, her poker face excellent. 

“Well, not if Bianca gets there first. Enjoy your night, ladies.”

Shouting goodbyes across the department, Brooke took a moment to think about the weekend ahead. She supposed it wasn’t really the weekend per se; tomorrow was Friday, but it was also the very first day of the party conference, also known as the biggest piss-up of the political calendar. Comms members were left behind in order for MPs, cabinet ministers and their political advisors to let off steam. Sure, the days were filled with debates, speakers and networking, but the evenings were reserved for debauchery. Much as Brooke had been throwing herself into her work she was secretly looking forward to a chance to let her hair down a bit, and even if that chance was only at a Hilton hotel in the South of England then she’d still take it. Her excitement was balanced by a little nervousness, though. Over the weekend Jackie would properly present her policy to the members of her own party for the first time, and the rumblings within the party revealed that there were several ministers who were still frosty towards Dosac as a result of the entire legacy fiasco. Brooke could only hope that Jackie would be able to turn the charm on as she was usually able. 

Just then, Jackie came out of her office a little furtively, walking towards Jan’s desk and scanning the office. 

“Is that everyone gone?” she asked, her voice low but still audible. Jan smiled up at her girlfriend, clearly happy to be able to drop the professional charade. 

“It’s just Brooke. So we’re all good,” she beamed. Jackie smiled back at her and sat on her desk, leaning in and kissing Jan’s forehead gently. 

“I still have a functioning set of eyeballs so let’s keep everything U-rated. Don’t want to contract obsessive repulsive disorder,” Brooke snorted, trying to pretend she was disdainful but really felt her heart both warming and breaking at how affectionate the two of them were. Jan moved her mouse with one hand while Jackie held her other, their fingers laced together. Jackie took some time out from gazing adoringly at her girlfriend to shoot a glare Brooke’s way. 

“That’s a shame, we were looking forward to doing that very secret and bad thing we do with your Sharpies after you go home,” she drawled, earning a snort from Jan. 

“So how are you guys even going to function this weekend anyway? I don’t suppose the hotel’s going to conveniently fuck up another booking?” Brooke smirked, clicking onto her emails at the same time. Jan rolled her eyes. 

“Do you think we have a combined IQ of four? No, of course not,” she laughed, then looked up at Jackie. “It’s just going to be good old-fashioned sneaking around. Jackie will get a double bed so we just have to make sure the hallways are clear every time I’m going to hers. It’ll be easy.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be very easy. I mean it’s not like the entire party and all their advisors are going to be staying in the same hotel or anything,” Brooke looked pointedly at her, feeling a little exasperated. 

“Trust me, Brooke, we’ll be careful. Just like we’ve been these past five months.”

Trying not to shake her head, Brooke just exhaled deeply. She was happy for them both, but she was probably never going to stop worrying about their ticking time bomb of a relationship and how long they both had until they were found out. If they weren’t worried about it, then surely someone had to be? Looking across at them both, she bit her tongue as she saw that Jan had turned around in her chair and now had both of her hands in Jackie’s, the Minister leaning in and giving her a sweet kiss. Out of respect, or perhaps nausea, Brooke averted her eyes back to her monitor. Sure enough, the polls were there in a mass email from Bianca, along with a reminder of the by-elections in May. It seemed ridiculously early for a reminder already but Brooke supposed that was how politics worked. Support had to be drummed up well in advance, and she reasoned that she’d probably be approached at the conference by a lot of hopeful potential MPs wanting to worm their way into the House of Commons. Clicking on the PDF file, she scrolled through pie charts and graphs searching for relevant statistics. She was suddenly distracted by a ringing from the phone in Jackie’s office. Looking up, she furrowed her brow at Jan and Jackie, similar confusion painted over both their faces. Calls weren’t supposed to go through to Jackie’s office unless they had been vetted by Nina, and Nina had already left. If it was Bianca or somebody else from within the party they’d contact Jackie’s iPhone. 

“Hmm. Weird. I’ll answer that and then we can head back to mine? I’m making _lamb,_ ” Jackie said proudly, then swung her legs off Jan’s desk and walked through to her office. 

As she heard Jackie’s muffled voice answer the phone, Brooke finally found the statistics she’d been looking for. Screwing her face up, she slowly read the numbers in front of her again. They couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be possible. 

“Jan,” Brooke yelled over to her friend. “Have you read the polls Bianca sent over?”

Jan simply shook her head. Brooke spoke again. “Read them and go to page 56. I’m not quite sure I’m seeing what’s in front of me.”

Jan dutifully followed Brooke’s orders. Brooke watched as she clearly reached the page she was talking about, her face completely falling in shock. “Oh shit. This is bad.”

As Brooke turned to Jackie’s office, she was only shocked further when she saw the minister standing by her desk, white as a sheet and very visibly shaken. Concerned, Brooke rose from her seat and made her way to her office, Jan following behind. As they walked into the glass-fronted room Jackie turned to both of them, her expression one of fear. 

“What is it? Who was phoning?”

Jackie wordlessly pressed a single button on the phone and the conversation began to replay. 

_“Hello, Jackie Cox, Minister for Dosac?”_

A male voice- aggressive, hissing. _“You’re fucking dead the next time I see you, you fucking traitor bitch.”_

_“…sorry?”_

_“You fucking heard me, you cunt. I’m going to throw acid in your face then make sure you’re fucking hanged, you quisling bitch.”_

_“How did you get this number?”_

_“You should be more concerned about the fact that I’m going to make sure you fucking die, you terrorist sympathiser cunt! Watch your fucking back.”_

With that, there was the sound of an empty telephone line, the flatline a stark contrast to Brooke’s own heart which was hammering in her ribcage. Jan, who had previously been standing with her mouth wide in shock, emitted a little squeak and rushed behind the desk to hold her girlfriend, the both of them visibly upset. Death threats to politicians were unfortunately common but this was the first time Brooke had ever had to deal with a physical phone call, most of the abuse being able to be ignored on social media. This was different- a voice, a person, someone who had physically sought out a phone number that was incredibly difficult to obtain, and this made Brooke nervous. Looking at Jackie again she could see that she was still fearful, her whole body language tense. Jan was crying, her frame shaking as she tried to quieten her sobs, tears rolling down her face and dropping onto the floor. 

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay. Nobody’s going to hurt you,” she whispered, her voice shaky and breath irregular. Sniffing, her voice suddenly grew dark and, releasing her hold on Jackie, she turned to Brooke. 

“I want that scum put away _tonight._ I’m phoning Bianca. We need to track the number. He needs locked the fuck up,” she said, storming out of the office. Brooke had never seen Jan this angry- her fists were physically clenched as if she was about to fight and her jaw was clenched tight. 

“Jan, don’t phone Bianca-” Brooke began, as Jan returned to the office with her mobile. Seething, Jan whipped round to Brooke, her eyes wide in their sockets. 

“What the fuck? Of course I’m phoning Bianca, this is serious! We need to get this rotted, disgusting filth locked away! How the fuck are you okay with this?!”

“I’m not okay with it at all!” Brooke cried, instantly realising she needed to calm Jan down. Jackie looked resignedly at her girlfriend. 

“Baby, it’s okay, I’m fine-”

“No, you’re not fine! You’ve just received a threat on your life, how can you be fine?!” Jan yelled in outrage as she tried to scroll at her phone but was prevented by her hands shaking furiously. 

“Jan, you need to calm down,” Brooke said softly, Jackie stepping out from behind her desk and wrapping her arms around the smaller girl. Heaving a huge sigh Jan sank into the hug, her face a sort of mix of seething and upset. Taking a moment to clear her head, Brooke spoke again. 

“Look, I’ll phone Bianca. I’ll also ask her to phone the police. She should have contacts that won’t leak so we can ensure this stays completely out of the media. We’ll make sure you’ve got security- I’ll phone the lobby and make sure you’ve got someone that’ll take you to your car when you leave the offices. That’s all we can do at the moment,” Brooke added apologetically, feeling bad for Jackie. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

Sighing, Jackie nodded. “I’m fine. It’s just never happened to me before, you know, an actual phone call. It was just an empty threat, these things always are. I mean, you’re not exactly going to warn a politician before you kill them, are you?”

Jan tensed up. “Jackie, don’t say that.”

“Well all I’m saying is, they know that this shit is only going to result in tighter security. It’s just an empty threat, they want to see me rattled. Which is exactly what I’m not going to give them.”

Brooke reflected on what the man had said. “Do you think this is about all you’re doing for the refugees?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, just his choice of words. Traitor, quisling, terrorist sympathiser. They’re classic EDL buzzwords for anyone that wants to let in any immigrants at all, never mind ones fleeing war.”

Jackie was silent, looking to the floor in contemplation. Brooke took that as an invitation to continue. “Would it be an idea to quieten down on the housing policy and maybe focus on another area of social affairs? We don’t want this to become anything bigger.”

Jackie narrowed her eyes at Brooke, her gaze snapping up from the floor. “No. This is exactly what bigots like him want, they want me to stop trying to do something. In a few months, people like him are still going to be as angry about this policy as they are now. There is no way I’m letting this derail anything.”

Still a little uncomfortable, Brooke watched as Jackie sighed, then pulled out of the hug and gave Jan a reassuring smile. 

“Are you sure you want to still go to the party conference?” Brooke asked hesitantly, Jackie instantly shutting her down. 

“Brooke, I said this wouldn’t interrupt anything, okay? I’m fine. Everything is business as usual.”

Sucking a breath in through gritted teeth, Brooke decided to broach the subject of the polls. “Okay, well if everything is still business as usual. I should probably let you know…you’re ten points behind in the polls.”

Jackie’s mouth dropped open. “Ten points, what?! What the hell have I done? Blended a baby, a puppy and a kitten together in a KitchenAid?!”

Jan sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “It might be because of your policy. The public knew you were left wing, but could deal with it as long as you weren’t _doing_ anything. People are annoyed you’re doing your job.” 

“Oh, fabulous,” Jackie hissed. Jan shot Brooke a glare as if to thank her for ruining their previously romantic evening. Feeling guilty, Brooke crossed to Jackie’s desk and picked up her handbag. 

“Look, don’t worry about it. I’ll figure something out and fix it. I’ll maybe get Vanessa involved,” Brooke said as she handed the minister her bag, regretting her last sentence as soon as it was out her mouth. “You guys just go enjoy your night, okay? Or at least try.”

Both Jackie and Jan gave her a smile of gratitude, Jackie taking her back from Brooke’s grasp. “Thanks, Brooke. You’re a gift.”

Jan smirked, seemingly a little more cheerful. “We’ll be thinking of you when she’s got three fingers in my-”

“GO HOME,” Brooke yelled, cutting her friend off, her disgust muted at her relief that the couple seemed a lot happier again as they both laughed softly, linked arms and began to leave the office. 

The calm and quiet of the department contrasted the instant pile-up of tasks in Brooke’s head. Heading to Jackie’s phone and ringing down to the lobby for security, she resigned herself to the fact that it was going to be a long night. 

***

Heaving her trundle suitcase down the very final step in her stairwell, Brooke pushed open her door and entered into the crisp morning air. It was, for now, a cold day, but there was still the promise of it getting warmer as the sun began to rise over the horizon. Rubbing her eyes a little, she stifled a yawn. As she looked at the time, Brooke cursed whoever had booked the hotel so far away. Still, she was a little excited at the prospect of getting out of London. Jackie’s driver was meant to be picking them all up at 6am, but Brooke had been texted by Jan and made aware they were running a little late. 

Brooke was pretty exhausted. She’d been up all night analysing the polls and figuring out a way to combat Jackie’s falling approval ratings, finally coming up with an answer. She supposed she would have been quicker if she’d contacted Vanessa and told her all that had gone on at the department after she’d left, but she hadn’t wanted to ruin her night with the comms girls. Besides, the thought of spending time alone with Vanessa wasn’t exactly the most appealing thing to her right now. 

Her thought process was interrupted as a sleek black car with blacked-out windows pulled up into Brooke’s street.

_Well, it’s either Jackie or a long-overdue hitman._

As the car arrived beside her, a single window was lowered to reveal Jackie in a huge pair of sunglasses. Beaming a smile, she shouted out to Brooke just as the boot of the car popped open. 

“Get in loser, we’re going to engage in stimulating, politically-driven conferences and debates!”

As Brooke rolled her eyes and lifted her case into the boot, sitting it beside Jan’s and Jackie’s, she heard the muffled voice of Jan from inside the car say something about constantly wondering why she was attracted to her girlfriend. Opening the other side door, Brooke climbed inside and sat opposite the couple. 

“Hey. How was your night?” Brooke asked politely, feeling small-talk would be appropriate before she launched into work matters. Jan gave a long-suffering sigh and took Jackie’s hand. 

“We ended up getting a sub-par chippy because someone’s lamb shanks were so raw they could’ve walked out the fucking oven.”

“Hey, nobody ever told me you had to cook lamb for approximately six hundred years!” Jackie cried incredulously, then laughing as Jan broke out into a smile beside her. Feeling it was too early for such displays of affection, Brooke decided to change topic.

“So, before we do anything else, I think I figured out the drop in the polls,” she began, getting her phone out to illustrate her plan before hearing Jackie groan opposite her. 

“Brooke, it’s six in the morning. Can we at least wait til the sun’s up before we start talking work?” 

“Hey, I’m proud of this idea! I think you’ll like it,” Brooke insisted. As Jackie simply rolled her eyes in response, Brooke carried on. “Your decrease in approval ratings is mainly amongst the over 40s demographic. So, instead of trying to win them back, we’re going to balance them with the 18 to 25s.”

“Oh God,” Jan sighed, Jackie bringing her hands up to her face then dragging them down her cheeks. “Brooke, they never bloody vote.”

“Only because nobody’s connecting with them! Now, we know they like Jackie from the response she gets on twitter. And what is the thing that most 18 to 25 year olds connect with the most?”

“…good policies on higher education?” Jackie tried hopefully. 

“TikTok!” Brooke declared proudly. Jackie and Jan stared at her as if she’d just grown another head. 

“I’ve woken up on another plane of reality,” Jackie blinked blankly. 

“Is it not kind of insulting to say that the only way Jackie can connect with younger voters is through social media?” Jan tilted her head a little. 

“Insulting to Jackie or insulting to- you know what, it doesn’t matter, the point is that the TikToks are politically relevant! I set you up an account and all you’ve got to do is post some funny, wholesome videos every now and again. The kids will love you, turn you into a massive TikTok star, become more engaged and invested in you than they already are, hype you up no end on social media and increase your approval ratings!”

“Um. I might be about to throw a spanner in the works here, but...what the hell is TikTok?” Jackie asked, her face blank. Sighing and shaking her head, Brooke gestured for Jackie to give her her phone and downloaded the app as Jan patiently explained how it worked to her girlfriend. Soon enough, Brooke was signing into the account she’d made for her boss and walking her through how to work the app.

“Don’t worry, sweetie, you’ll get the hang of it,” Jan smiled, giving her visibly confused girlfriend a kiss on the cheek. “But in all seriousness, this isn’t the worst idea you’ve ever had, B. How much of it was really down to Vanessa?”

Brooke felt as if she’d suddenly choked on something. “Oh, um, I never had to contact her in the end. The idea just sort of came to me.”

“Speaking of contacting people, did you get in touch with Bianca about that phone call?” Jackie asked, her voice suddenly grave. Brooke had. Bianca had seemed a little rattled that whoever it was had managed to obtain a departmental phone number, but was convinced it was nothing more than an empty threat, and Brooke conveyed this to Jackie. 

“She’s got someone at the Metropolitan working on it. Shouldn’t be too hard to trace the number once they phone the network provider,” she explained, her heart seizing up as she recognised the familiar new-build flats outside the window. “We should probably stop talking about this now that we’re at Vanessa’s.”

“Why? Wasn’t she made aware?” Jackie asked, her voice turning a little stern.

Brooke let out a sigh. “I didn’t tell her.”

“What?! Why not?”

_Because I’m scared to text her?_ _Fire drill._ “Because I don’t want this getting round the department more than it has to. We need to keep this as lowkey as we can, and if that involves not telling key members of the department, then...so be it.”

Just as Jackie appeared satisfied with Brooke’s answer the car stopped right alongside Vanessa who was standing beside a huge suitcase, a smaller but very full backpack that was looped around its handles, and a Sainsbury’s bag that seemed to contain wellington boots. The tiny girl beamed with joy, then rushed around the back to put everything into the boot. 

“Jesus. What the hell has she packed?” Jan snorted an affectionate laugh as the boot slammed loudly from the back of the car and Vanessa clambered into the seat beside Brooke. 

“G’morning ladies! Ah, I am so motherfuckin’ ready! This is going to be the _best_ weekend,” she squealed happily, clapping her hands together in excitement. 

“I hate to disappoint, Vanessa, but I don’t know how exciting it’s going to be for you watching a bunch of speeches that are irrelevant to your line of work and watching me debate the idiots we share a party with.”

“Oh, come on, it’s not so bad. We’ve got the _diversity disco_ tomorrow night,” Brooke said dryly, her awe at the erratic planning of each conference growing more and more each year. 

“Right! It’ll be a blast. School disco vibes!” Vanessa nodded enthusiastically. “Plus, all the other advisors are usually lovely! Yvie was sayin’ last night that we needed to look out for one of her old friends from HR- Monique, I’ve met her once or twice but had no idea she was a party member. Apparently she’s one of Shea Couleé’s girls and she’s sorta in at the deep end, so we need to look out for her. Plus she knows a couple of Sasha Velour’s people too.”

“Sasha Velour, ugh. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to work with her, she’s so pretentious. Like she could shoot explosive diarrhoea over the entire House of Commons and she’d still think she was the best person in the room,” Brooke wrinkled her nose disdainfully. Sasha was one of the party’s many new arrivals after the expenses scandal those six months ago, and in that time Brooke hadn’t been convinced by her at all. Her approval ratings seemed to be good but any interview she did always seemed to make her come across as too hyper-intelligent for anyone else. Hell, she’d managed to out-smug Raja Gemini. 

“I know Bianca got on at her for using too many long words in her interviews,” Jan chipped in thoughtfully. 

“I don’t know. From what I’ve seen in cabinet meetings she’s pretty quiet. Keeps herself to herself. She’s quite buddy with some of the other new ministers, but if all I’ve got to worry about this weekend is a party clique then I’m not worried. I mean I survived high school,” Jackie shrugged nonchalantly. “How long do we have in this car?”

Jan checked her phone. “Two hours and twenty minutes.”

“God. I’m going to kill myself.”

Vanessa perked up. “Hey, I know what we can do to pass the time!”

Brooke’s face grew scheming. “Oh shit, the game we used to play going up to MediaCity?”

“YES! Party political Guess Who,” Vanessa replied, her face equally as mischievous. Turning to Jackie, she explained. “It’s like Guess Who, but with members of the party.”

“Thanks, Vanessa, I’m really glad you explained that to me,” Jackie deadpanned. 

“I’ll start then. I’m thinking of a cabinet minister,” Jan smiled, giving nothing away. 

“It’s Jackie,” Brooke said instantly, earning her a weird look from Vanessa. 

“Fuck you, it’s not Jackie!” Jan blurted out, embarrassed.

“The hell, why would it automatically be Jackie?” Vanessa asked, her face still dumbfounded. 

“She’s in the car with us, isn’t she?” Brooke stuttered, eager to cover up her misdemeanour. “Okay, is she a woman?”

“Yes.”

“What colour hair has she got?” Jackie asked, warming to the game. 

“It’s yes or no questions only, amateur,” Brooke joked. “Has she got brown hair?”

“Yep.”

“Well don’t that narrow it down,” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “She made a lot of media appearances in the last three months?” 

Jan narrowed her eyes in thought. “Not really.”

“She at last year’s party conference?”

Jan snorted a laugh that very obviously gave something away. “Yes.”

“Did she make headlines for bringing a bunch of guys back to her hotel room she found on Tinder and riding each one of them like a pogo stick?” Brooke cut in immediately. 

“Yes!” Jan blurted out excitedly. 

“Is it our beloved Minister for International Trade, Miss Trinity Taylor?!” Vanessa suddenly squealed, excitement getting the better of her. All four girls burst out laughing. 

“Hey, fuck you, ‘Ness! That was my answer!” Brooke laughed, whacking her on the arm despite not knowing what possessed her to. Vanessa simply batted her eyelashes at her. 

“Aww, sorry baby! Snooze, you lose!”

As the others kept laughing, Brooke felt her heart freeze up. Did Vanessa realise what she’d said? Inwardly, Brooke shook her head. Of course she didn’t. It was just an offhand comment, something she obviously wouldn’t read into as much as Brooke had and something that Brooke was stupid for reading into anyway. _Fire drill._

Two hours, twenty minutes and most of the cabinet members later, Jackie’s driver pulled up outside the Hilton they were to be staying at for the weekend. Vanessa had been right; from the outside, at least, it did look good. Each floor was stacked high on top of the other, with chunky balconies outlining each one. It was very business-like but also classy, perfect for the weekend ahead. As Jackie’s driver opened the doors and a Hilton employee rushed to the boot to retrieve their luggage, the four made their way up the marble steps past a few hungover-looking smokers and into the hotel lobby, where Jackie took the lead in checking them all into their respective hotel rooms. 

“On behalf of the Hilton, we’d like to wish you a very warm welcome and hope that you enjoy the conference,” the receptionist chirped, smiling as he slid four identical key cards over the countertop. “Your rooms are 505, 511, 512 and 513. We offer 24-hour room service although the front desk does close at midnight. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Jackie tilted her head. “Could I have a bottle of champagne sent up to room 512 at around six o’clock tonight please?”

The receptionist barely stopped himself from raising his eyebrows. “Absolutely, I can fix that for you right away Ms. Cox.”

“Thank you,” she smiled, turning away from the desk. Brooke fixed her with a frown. 

“A bottle of champagne? Do we look like Kardashians?”

“What? It’s the party conference, let me live. ‘Party’ is right there in the title.”

“Right in front of ‘conference’,” Brooke muttered under her breath. Scooping up the key cards from the reception desk, she shrugged. “Okay, Jan, you take 511-”

Jan gave her a grateful smile that thanked her for putting her beside Jackie without any words. 

“- I’ll take 505 and ‘Ness can have-”

“Oh sweet Jesus, don’t put me anywhere near the number thirteen,” Vanessa said, her voice a little panicked. Brooke had forgotten about Vanessa’s ever-so-slightly superstitious nature. It was one of the things she found so endearing about her.

“Alright, Stevie Wonder,” Brooke rolled her eyes to mask her affection, handing her the other key card. “Should we head up to the welcome address? We’ve still got half an hour but it’d be good to go and see who’s turned up.”

Nodding in agreement, Jan dashed over to the porter who had stacked their suitcases high on a golden luggage trolley and told him which room they were all to go to. Once she’d ensured the safe arrival of their belongings, the four of them made their way to the lifts and travelled up several floors to a floor free of any hotel rooms; the doors opened to reveal a sort of holding area with a slightly worn red carpet and cream wallpaper. That being said, Brooke could hardly see most of her surroundings on account of the sheer volume of people currently in the room. Her observations were interrupted by a man in a smart suit, who she vaguely recognised as one of the interns at Number Ten handing her a sheet of paper. 

“Welcome to the annual party conference!” he smiled, desperation to hopefully be picked up by an MP or a Minister so he could begin his ascent to the top of the political world seeping out of every pore. Brooke cast a glance at the sheet which appeared to be the agenda for the weekend. 

“God, there’s entirely too much mingling going on in this room,” Jackie exhaled, her tone a little overwhelmed. “It’s like being in a snake pit.”

“Well look, there’s Latrice over there! She likes you, why don’t you go and chat to her?” Vanessa pointed out the large, cheerful Communities and Local Government Minister who was standing by the table of nibbles and laughing loudly with the girl serving behind it. Pulling a face and shrugging, Jackie straightened her posture and made her way over to Latrice, leaving Jan, Vanessa and Brooke still hovering by the lifts. Brooke watched as Jan scanned the room, her eyes suddenly resting on someone and her face jolting in recognition. Faltering a little as she remembered the two girls beside her, Jan began to slowly move towards who she’d seen. 

“I’ve just spotted, um…someone I knew from uni. I’m just going to go catch up- you guys don’t mind, do you?”

Jan barely gave either of them time to reply with a yes or no as she quickly disappeared into the crush of people. Curiosity piqued, Brooke craned her neck in an attempt to see who Jan had been so focused on but it was impossible to see where she had gone in the shifting crowd. Letting it drop, Brooke became aware that only she and Vanessa were left. Her palms began to sweat as she searched for something to say, but Vanessa didn’t seem to feel as uncomfortable. 

“Look, there’s Nina from Work and Pensions,” she kept her voice low as she subtly pointed to the new minister, who was standing on her own sipping from an orange juice and scanning the room. “Should we go say hi?”

Brooke scoffed. “Nah. She won’t know who we are and I’m not entirely sure she’s a fan of Jackie’s either.”

Shrugging, she gave Brooke a little smile. “Well, we can just keep each other company ‘til the conference starts.”

Brooke couldn’t control the way she beamed a smile back at her. Suddenly scrambling for conversation, Brooke looked to the floor, a little nervous. “So, any big plans for tonight?”

Vanessa bit her lip slightly. “Was thinkin’ of heading to the SkyBar and tryin’ to make some friends. I know there was some talk from the advisors ‘bout drinks after dinner. Sound good?”

Brooke was only a little taken aback at Vanessa’s invitation. Stammering a little, she pulled an apologetic face. “Sorry. I’m going to stay in and work on a little more analysis of these bankers’ bonuses that’re getting debated tomorrow. Try and conjure up a couple more figures for Jackie to throw in.”

Vanessa momentarily looked as if she was injured. “Oh. Sure, no, yeah.”

Brooke all but flinched, wondering what she’d done to result in Vanessa’s drop in spirits. She was a breath away from trying to save the situation- perhaps saying she’d come for one single drink if only to see that smile reappear on Vanessa’s face again- when she was stopped by a cry from within the crowd. 

“Vanessa?!” came a soft, high voice, the words followed by a confident-looking girl who looked entirely too young to be in politics. She wore a bright orange pencil skirt and suit jacket which were perfectly tailored, and her dark hair hung in delicate waves framing her face. As she turned her head very slightly, the light hit her cheekbones in an almost blinding fashion, indicating that if politics didn’t work out she could always go into makeup artistry. If Brooke hadn’t seen her before, Vanessa certainly seemed as if she knew her, and the smile that the girl brought to her face made Brooke only the tiniest little bit jealous.

“Monique, bitch! It’s so good to see you, I had no idea you were working for the party ‘til Yvie mentioned it!” she beamed, happiness restored as she gave the girl a quick hug. 

“Yeah, well, Shea scouted me after someone obviously noticed my performance in admin over at human resources. But Jesus, Vanessa, there’s so _much_! I feel like I’m constantly behind and everyone’s so much more advanced. I mean Naysha- you know Cynthia’s Naysha over at International Development? Well the rumour is she’s getting considered for an advisory job at number ten,” Monique reeled off, her face lighting up at the gossip. Brooke’s ears perked up at the mention of the number ten job, her detached interest which she’d held previously suddenly increasing. Monique seemed not to realise the impact of her words and was still carrying on. “Meanwhile I’m still over here not even sure how to use the photocopier! Oh, I’m sorry, girl, I don’t think we’ve met?”

With that, Monique turned to Brooke and warmly stuck a hand out for her to shake. Hesitantly, Brooke gave a tight smile and took Monique’s hand. “I’m Brooke Lynn. I work with ‘Ness, I’m Jackie Cox’s advisor.” 

Monique’s face sort of sank, the smile that had previously been plastered to it melting away. “Oh shit. I should’ve registered. It’s Dosac you girls work for, right?” 

Starting to feel a little like she had the power to ruin everyone’s mood, Brooke nodded, her brow furrowed. Monique pulled a sort of pained expression. 

“What is it, Mo?” Vanessa asked, concern written all over her face. 

“Shit, I shouldn’t even have said anything. An’ it’s only a rumour, y’know, it might not even happen, right? But you know that Shea’s close with Sasha an’ obviously word gets around, and I heard it from that annoying girl Farrah- you know Sasha’s advisor, the one that’s always cryin’- so I guess it must be true,” she reeled off, her face only growing more and more filled with dread. 

“Monique. Talk to me, girl,” Vanessa asked, a frown deep set on her face. 

Monique took a deep breath and grimaced. “Sasha’s speech later today. About politics and the media. Jackie doesn’t really come off too good in it.”

Brooke gave a deep sigh, bringing both hands up behind her head. This was all she needed to add to her already sky-high stress levels. “What exactly does she say?”

As soon as Monique opened her mouth, she immediately shut it again as her gaze focussed on someone just over Brooke’s shoulder. As Brooke turned to acknowledge whoever it was, she came near face-to-face with two girls at the same time. Appearance-wise, they couldn’t have contrasted more; the one on the left had flawless dark skin, with colourful makeup that contrasted her pure white shift dress. Her dreadlocks hung over her shoulders and down her back, the little gold embellishments hanging from the odd dread giving Brooke the impression of a sort of Christmas tree. The girl on the right, however, immediately raised Brooke’s hackles despite her unthreatening appearance- a huge, candyfloss mane of white-blonde hair sat on her shoulders and only accentuated her pale face, which was painted with just a simple red lip and two huge wings of eyeliner. She wore a plain teal suit dress, which was impeccably ironed and crease-free. Brooke looked down at her own slightly crumpled white shirt and black pencil skirt self-consciously. The two girls were recognisable as Shea Coulee and Sasha Velour respectively. Like Jackie, they’d both been new starts all those months ago after the expenses scandal- Shea taking up the post as Minister of Defence and Sasha filling the vacancy for Minister of Justice. They had both been strong presences in parliament, managing to gain considerable traction on policies they’d dreamed up, and their approval ratings were good amongst the public. However, Brooke had heard small snippets of rumours that flew around the party indicating that Shea and Sasha were more than simply colleagues. If anything was going on between them, however, they didn’t show it as they stood beside each other, their posture and expressions statuesque. 

“Monique! There you are, we were wondering where you’d managed to get to,” Shea smiled pleasantly, her voice calm placid. 

“I was just talkin’ to Brooke Lynn and Vanessa. Jackie’s girls,” Monique stuttered, hasty to conceal that she’d revealed anything to them both just moments ago. Sasha raised a single eyebrow in interest, turning to Shea and sharing a look that seemed to be a mixture of amusement and something else Brooke couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“Sorry, is there a problem?” Brooke couldn’t help but challenge. Sasha, for her part, looked taken aback at Brooke’s forthright manner. Her smile was still calm and her tone was even as she spoke. 

“Not at all! If anything I think it’s sweet that Jackie still _has_ advisors after her performance so far in her position,” Sasha said, her level tone hiding the bite to her words. Vanessa narrowed her eyes. 

“She got three advisors, actually, so she ain’t exactly short of allies.”

“Tell that to our party, girl,” Shea laughed, throwing her head back. “Three advisors and she still manages to fuck up. That’s kinda bad.”

“I wouldn’t call getting approval from a number of European leaders _fucking up_ ,” Brooke said, trying her best to keep her tone calm but her flared nostrils potentially giving her away. 

“And there was me thinking Jackie’s approval ratings had plummeted in the recent polls. But maybe I have my numbers wrong,” Sasha said lightly, Brooke wondering how she managed to make a shrug sarcastically apologetic. “Anyway, they’re letting people in to the welcome address now so I was thinking of getting going, Shea? But it was lovely to meet you both. If you’d ever like to come spend a day or two over in Justice, you’d be more than welcome!”

Shea gave Sasha an amused smirk. “What she really means is, if you find yourself wanting to work for a department that’s actually going places, her door’s always open.”

Brooke’s face scrunched up in distaste as Sasha gave a disapproving look and batted Shea lightly on the arm. “Your mouth is going to get you in huge amounts of trouble one day, Ms. Coulee.”

As they moved away, Monique’s apologetic goodbye and a promise to see them both later muffled what Shea replied, but Brooke could have sworn it was something about Sasha having never had any complaints about her mouth before. Her eyes were still narrowed and trained on Sasha like a sniper as she spoke. 

“I knew there was a reason that girl didn’t sit well with me, I mean she’s so stuck up she’s practically Blu Tac. What’s the damage control plan?”

Vanessa furrowed her brow. “There ain’t much we can do except make Jackie aware. We can’t control what Sasha’s going to say, unless we can find something to smear her?”

Brooke raised both eyebrows. “I don’t know if we can get any solid evidence that her and Shea are fucking but surely their interactions are evidence enough.”

Vanessa went to speak then stopped, her words getting caught in her throat. To Brooke’s curiosity, her expression became briefly antagonised as she paused, then opened her mouth again. “How come you can see what’s goin’ on with them clear as day but you don’t see…”

She sort of trailed off, expression becoming even more pained as something stopped her speech in her tracks. Confused, Brooke prompted her. “Don’t see what?”

Vanessa sighed and simply shook her head. Before Brooke could press her about it any more, they found themselves both being shoved forward a little in the crowd as everyone began to make their way into the conference hall. The flow of the human tide brought Jackie back to them as they shuffled forward towards the doorway like cattle. 

“Okay. Issue. Latrice told me there’s a rumour that Sasha’s speech is basically just her dragging me through the mud for a considerable amount of time,” Jackie said quietly, her face not giving away her obvious nerves. 

“Yeah. We heard it from Monique, so I don’t think there’s any element of fiction to it,” Vanessa grimaced, hating to be the bearer of bad news. Jackie let out a huge breath. 

“Fuck. So I’ve got death threats, falling approval ratings, and now my own party hates me.”

“DEATH THREATS?” Vanessa all but shouted, causing a few heads to turn her way. Brooke cringed, trying her best to shush her and turning to Jackie. 

“Thanks, Jackie.”

“She’s an advisor, she deserves to know!” 

“Deserves to know what? Brooke Lynn. Did you keep somethin’ from me?” Vanessa turned to Brooke, suddenly accusatory. Brooke found herself hoping she was somehow standing above a trapdoor that would miraculously open and lower her into the void. 

“Look, I’ll tell you later,” Brooke insisted, desperate to placate her. “For now, let’s just hear what the Chancellor of the Exchequer is going to drone on at us about through his fucking nasal passages for the next half hour.”

Brooke didn’t miss the way Vanessa’s shoulders slumped, her body language completely defeated. She felt a stab of guilt at her heart, wondering if she should regret not telling Vanessa. On one hand, she truly did believe that keeping the death threat between the three of them was the best way to handle it. However, something in her gut made her question if part of her had just really wanted to keep her distance from Vanessa. _Fire drill? I don’t even know anymore._

Brooke’s thoughts were interrupted as the three of them were joined by Jan just as they crossed the boundary of the conference hall and took their seats relatively near the back of the room. Sitting on her chair with a thud, Jan leaned into Jackie’s ear and whispered something. Jackie’s face became outraged. 

“What the hell, why did everybody else find out about the bloody content of this speech before I did?”

Brooke leaned forward to face Jan. “Who the fuck did you find out from?!”

“My friend from high school told me. He-”

Brooke cut her off, suddenly confused. “I thought you said it was a friend from uni?”

Jan paused for a second and blinked, seemingly realising she’d slipped up. “Did I? I meant high school. Anyway, he told me. Everybody seems to have heard, so maybe we need to think of a strategy to deal with the fallout?”

Jackie nodded, her expression determined. She seemed eager to get back on top, and Brooke felt a sudden fire and drive to help her get one up on the other members of the party. 

For now, though, they had to sit through an old, rich white man loving the sound of his own voice for a considerable length of time. Brooke concluded it was just like any other day in parliament.

***

Trying their best to keep their heels quiet against the wooden floor, the four girls snuck into the very back of the hall and sat down gently on four available wooden seats. Brooke craned her neck to the very front of the room, where she could see a single long table where the Chair sat with Sasha. She seemed at ease and completely nonplussed by the situation, sorting her index cards out calmly while her face gave nothing away. Fishing the weekend’s agenda from her bag, Brooke studied the description again. 

_16.00- 16.30 – Hall 2 – Minister for Justice_

_Secretary of State Sasha Velour discusses the public’s view of politicians in the media, taking different landmark events from the political calendar and offering her own analysis as to how they in turn affected the approval ratings of the party._

Sighing and shaking her head, Brooke could only hope Jackie didn’t get brought up as many times as people seemed to be implying. All day she’d been an absolute jittery, rage-filled nightmare; every speech the four of them had sat in had featured impatient foot-tapping indicating that Jackie’s attention was miles away. She hadn’t touched any food at lunchtime either. Brooke just had to thank God that she didn’t have any debates to take part in until tomorrow, as she’d probably just open her mouth and start spewing particles of her own brain. Looking at Jackie now, Brooke could see that she was just staring steadfastly straight ahead, her eyes trained on the other young minister on the stage. Brooke watched Jan look nervously at her girlfriend, then as she lifted a single hand and made to hold it in Jackie’s. Locking eyes with her, Brooke gave Jan a warning look and, sighing, the other advisor backed down. Brooke felt bad but it was for their own good- the hall was filled with people, and a gesture like that would have been far, far too obvious. 

The small murmur in the room quietened to a complete silence as the Chair took to the podium and introduced Sasha, Brooke’s gaze immediately snapping over to Shea who was sitting on the other side of the room and whose deafening claps soared over the polite applause of the rest of the crowd. 

Taking a confident stance at the podium, Sasha smiled pleasantly at the Chair. 

“First of all I’d like to start by thanking the chairman for such a warm introduction, and by thanking all of you for coming along. I promise I won’t keep you all for long, as I know we have a big night ahead of us!”

Brooke grimaced as the crowd gave a polite chuckle. “Fucking get on with it, then.”

Pausing as she shuffled her index cards, Sasha looked down at the podium, then looked back up at the crowd. “Politics and the media. It’s a relationship that, it could be argued, is incredibly symbiotic. Without politics, would the media have any reason to exist? Without the media, politics, yes, would still exist, but would it be the democratic institution it has come to be today? The media has become one of the most important vehicles through which politics is conveyed, and for one simple reason; public engagement. The media is vastly accessible to the majority of the population through newspapers, television, radio, and more recently, social media.”

“We know what fucking media entails,” Brooke hissed under her breath, perhaps a little too loudly as an elderly MP turned around from the row in front and gave her a disapproving look. 

“Why is this accessibility so important? Well, it only increases the scrutiny that politicians- us- are put under by the very people that have voted us into our position. The electorate put their trust in us and, through the media, they are given a chance to check up on the people they used their vote on. It’s only reasonable that they expect us to be responsible, respectable members of parliament, after all, we are representing them. We reflect our electorate, and in turn, our electorate reflects us.”

Brooke leaned slightly to her left and whispered to Jackie. “She can’t be mentioning you. She’s been rabbiting on for five minutes and all she’s done is use stupid, meaningless phrases.”

Jackie frowned and made to shush her as Sasha carried on. 

“Take, for example, the opposition’s leadership contest. Nicky Doll’s behaviour towards her competitor, Manila Luzon, showed a level of childishness, churlishness, and just downright sexism. How is this reflected in her electorate? Well, we know both Piers Morgan and Katie Hopkins endorsed her campaign…so I shouldn’t need to say too much more to illustrate my point!”

This time, a bubble of genuine laughter burst in the hall, Brooke’s expression stony in the face of it all. She didn’t have to turn to look at Jackie to know that her face was the exact same, the tension radiating from her like heat from an oven. 

“Now we can laugh at situations like these- except when they’re occurring in our own party. As members, MPs and Ministers, we should constantly be aiming to make our electorate proud. We must always remember that whatever we are doing, it reflects on the whole party. And this is why in every situation we are in, we must remember that our actions have wider consequences than simply ourselves,” Sasha stopped, moved one index card in front of the other and carried on, her tone now one of pride instead of neutrality. “For example, our minister for defence, Shea Coulee. Within her first month of appointment, as I’m sure you’ll all know, Ms. Coulee flew out to Syria to witness the effects that drone strikes from our country had had on innocent communities. Within a month of her arrival back in the UK, her department had drawn up a piece of legislation that should have ensured tighter control and accuracy of drone strikes. We know now that the legislation was blocked by opposing parties- disappointing, yes, but what couldn’t have been predicted was the overwhelming public support as a result. Defence had previously been a department that many wished didn’t exist- an area of the government which was cold and lacked humanity. Ms. Coulee, through media appearances and connection with the public through platforms such as hustings, surgeries and even on Twitter, has managed to bring humanity, dignity and warmth to a position that many were too afraid to fill.”

Brooke looked over once again at Shea, whose face was lit up in gratitude at the glowing praise. Just as she was about to roll her eyes, Brooke was jolted back into attention by Sasha’s next sentence. 

“Dignity is one of the most important qualities to possess in our area of work, and I was saddened when I watched the events of Jackie Cox’s Daily Mail interview and its aftermath.”

Brooke instantly felt every single muscle in her body tense up, the blood coursing through her veins. She couldn’t bring herself to look at Jackie, who had sucked in a tremendous amount of air at once through her nostrils. A few heads turned around in their seats to crane their necks in the direction of Jackie and her advisors. Unable to move in her seat and feeling she was strapped into a rollercoaster she didn’t want to be on, Brooke could only listen to the rest of the speech. 

“True, she opened the door to a conversation that really needed to be had; the staggering amount of sexism politicians face from the media every day is vast…however, that’s a speech for another day!” the audience laughed again and Brooke had to fight the urge not to pick up her chair and start smashing their moronic heads in. “But the thing that I felt really undermined her point was the way she conveyed her anger. She could have stayed and debated Shangela Wadely. She could have derailed the interview into a really productive discussion. But instead, she stormed out. She voided the chance of gaining something really positive out of a bad interview. Through sheer luck, Widow Von’Du had wanted to highlight the same thing but the party has to wonder- what would have happened if Ms. Von’Du had not invited Ms. Cox onto the news? The integrity and public view of the party was thrown into disarray. Would we all be free to walk out of any interview we choose, to refuse to answer questions simply because we didn’t like them? Are we all free to speak however we like on media appearances? As politicians we are always eager to relate to the public, but should our endeavours to be relatable go as far as being brash or being crude? Or even, as Ms. Cox has done today...downloading TikTok?”

“This bitch seems to talk entirely in rhetorical questions,” Brooke hissed to nobody in particular, her resentment growing with each line of Sasha’s speech. The justice minister carried on. 

“We know that Ms. Cox’s endeavours have clearly failed, hence the fall in approval ratings next to Nicky Doll. But is this solely due to the attempt to be relatable? It is likely that it has more to do with the leaking of the Prime Minister’s legacy, which we now know came from her department. Months of work from advisors at number 10 gone completely down the drain, and it should serve as a reminder to us all to tighten the security and our protocol within our departments, to ensure that the lines between civil servants and political workers are made abundantly clear. With this error of judgement-” 

“Screw this. I’m not staying to have my character assassinated any longer,” Jackie suddenly hissed through gritted teeth, all at once snatching her bag up from the floor and walking out of the row she sat in, not even caring about the looks she drew from at least the three rows of chairs in front. Panicked, Brooke looked across at Vanessa, whose gaze was fixed on Jan following her girlfriend out of the room as if attached by a string. Making her own decision, Brooke jumped up from her chair and made her way to the exit, hearing Vanessa’s heels scraping across the wooden floor approximately a second afterwards. Bursting through the double doors, she was grateful to see that Jan had restrained herself from comforting her girlfriend and was standing not too close to a deflated Jackie who was slumped against the wall. Brooke opened her mouth to speak, but Jackie got there first. 

“Vanessa, could you please phone Nina and tell her we need all hands on deck to firefight this. Pre-warn her. Phone Bianca as well and see what the line is. Jan, could you nip down to reception and ask if they can bump our-” Jackie suddenly coughed very violently in an attempt to cover the mistake Brooke had already heard. “- my champagne order forward to five o’clock? I feel as if I need it and about twenty Valium.”

Obediently, Vanessa retrieved her phone from her bag and crossed to a quieter end of the corridor to make the phone call. With the other advisor gone, Jan risked a squeeze of Jackie’s hand and a quick kiss on her cheek before she dashed across into the lift. With just Brooke and Jackie left, Jackie tore her hands through her long, dark hair and gave a heart-wrenching sigh. Brooke felt for her. 

“Hey. It’ll be okay, you know,” Brooke braved a small smile which she hoped looked reassuring. “Tomorrow is a new day and you just have to go out there and do what you do best. Lacerate that cotton-wool haired bitch in the debate and then kill your speech. It’s a bump, but you can redeem yourself in less than 24 hours.”

Jackie gave Brooke a sort of helpless look, her blue eyes seeming more like pools than their usual ice. “It’s not that I’m worried about. I know I’m good, I know I’ll be fine tomorrow. I just…have I really been as bad as Sasha said? Have I really been that toxic for the party?”

Brooke’s face instantly contorted in disbelief. “Oh, God, no! Jackie, you’ve been the best thing that’s happened to this party since you arrived. Sasha just needed someone to attack and she’s jealous you’ve had more media appearances than any other minister so she spun everything into something bad.”

“I just feel like I’ve let everybody down,” Jackie’s voice was flat, and Brooke had to fight the weird urge she had to hug her. 

“Listen. Bianca Del Rio scouted you out because she saw something special in you. And when you came to Dosac, everyone else saw it too. Well, Jan more than most, but anyway,” Brooke threw in a joke in an attempt to cheer the minister up and earned herself a small quirk of a smile at the mention of her girlfriend’s name. “And the public saw it more than anyone. Okay, your approval ratings dropped, but whose don’t? It’s just a case of finding your feet again, and you can do that. We all believe in you, Jackie. You’ve not let anyone down.”

Her smile small but still present, Jackie pushed herself off of her leaning position on the wall and stood with a little more poise. “You know, it seems strange, but for someone who started off as my harshest critic I can really always count on you to cheer me up.”

Brooke bristled a bit. “Yeah, well. People evolve. We all came from fish once.”

Jackie snorted a laugh, then composed herself. “Well. I’m grateful for you anyway.”

Allowing herself a smile, Brooke looked over at the corner of the room from where Vanessa was making her way back to the two girls. 

“Okay, so Nina’s already on it- calls are coming in already, apparently- but the line Bianca gave ‘em is that this does not affect the validity or credibility of your stance or policies in any way, and the party is not split,” she addressed Jackie, then pulled a face as her tone became concerned. “Bianca’s livid at Sasha. She said something ‘bout her being so intent on dividing the party into pieces that she’s going to divide up her body with a Stanley knife then dissolve it all in acid.” 

Raising her eyebrows, Brooke gave a shrug. “Yeah, that definitely sounds like Bianca to me.”

“Well, ladies, it’s only quarter past four,” Jackie said, the confidence back in her voice. “And we’ve suddenly got a bit of free time on our hands. I suggest we drink until we can only see in greyscale.”

Vanessa’s face lit up before Brooke made the same feeble excuse she’d given to Vanessa before. Really the truth was that the less time she spent around the other advisor the better, the entire day already seeming like some slow, painful water torture with every second she was around Vanessa’s perfume, smile or bright eyes. 

Excuses and goodbyes made for the afternoon, Brooke found herself in the hotel lift being elevated towards a night of room service, a cold shower, and shitty TV game shows. 

It really was the glamour that she loved the most about her job. 

***

Brooke lay completely awake, her eyes burning as they bore into the darkness that hung above her head. Casting her eye to the only light source in the room, she gave a loud sigh when she saw that the numbers on the digital clock read that it was one in the morning. Exasperated, Brooke turned over in the huge double bed the hotel had provided her. There was nothing wrong with it whatsoever; the sheets were soft and the mattress was comfy, but Brooke had been kept awake for a couple of reasons. One of which had been the loud moaning and banging of the headboard that had started up just as Brooke had originally decided to head to bed, all interspersed with cries of Jackie’s name that made Brooke want to simply die. Around five minutes into the ordeal, Brooke decided that she’d had enough, turned over to face her bedside table and reached for the hotel phone. Punching in the room number of the source of the banging, she sighed with relief when things in the next room fell silent and a clearly irritated Jan picked up the phone. 

“Hello?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I thought this was the room of Minister for Social Affairs and Citizenship Jackie Cox?” Brooke sing-songed down the phone, delighting when she heard Jan’s voice catch in her throat on the other end of the line. “Don’t shit yourself, Jan. It’s me. But be more fucking subtle. Or fuck more subtly. I’m scarred for life here, I’ve got fucking PTSD. Post traumatic…scissoring disorder.” 

Brooke could practically hear Jan rolling her eyes. “You can be a real dick sometimes, you know that?”

“Night night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite,” Brooke deadpanned, before crashing the phone against the receiver and turning over once more in bed. 

That had been the only distraction of the evening that Brooke could physically prevent or even interrupt. But for the rest of her attempts at sleep she’d been tortured by her own thoughts. Primarily (or at least that’s what she tell herself) thoughts of Sasha’s speech ran riot in her mind, Brooke feeling more and more irritated with each passing minute at the Justice Minister’s audacity to attack Jackie as she had done. The fact that Jackie had had to follow Darienne meant that anything would have been an improvement, a fucking mammal with a head, but Jackie had really taken a failing department and launched it into the stratosphere. She couldn’t understand where Sasha’s remarks had come from, and Brooke was convinced that Jackie had been doing a formidable job. She’d been fruitlessly grasping at ways Jackie could get back at her the next day, interspersed with stabs of guilt at the thought of resorting to childish point-scoring. Still, if they weren’t fighting fair then Brooke was prepared to be as petty as was allowed. 

Every so often these thoughts of irritation would be balanced by stomach-churning thoughts that made Brooke’s heart feel constricted and panicky. Today was possibly the most time she’d spent in Vanessa’s vicinity for quite a long time. It was easy to avoid her at work because she could just escape to her desk and sit and become engrossed in her own jobs. But today had been exhausting, and every single thing Vanessa did managed to make Brooke’s heart ache all the more. Why the hell could she not just get over the stupidity of her feelings? She’d been distancing herself from Vanessa for about a month and a half now, but the desired effect- that she’d be over her by now- just wasn’t happening. There was a particularly scary thought that barged into Brooke’s brain at around midnight, which appeared in a sort of scary whisper. 

_If I can’t get over my feelings for her, I just need to tell her about them._

Brooke had physically grit her teeth, helplessly pulling her pillow over her ears in an attempt to keep the thoughts away to no avail. How could she even have thought a thing like that? How would that be successful in any way? There was no way Vanessa would react well to such a thing, let alone return her feelings. But memories stabbed at her mind, little small things that Vanessa probably didn’t think twice about but things that Brooke clung to like a comfort blanket. The biggest one was their kiss at Christmastime, but there were other occurrences too- meaningful looks, awkward blushes, cryptic sentences which had been started and then dropped. 

_Stop this._

Closing her eyes again, Brooke attempted to clear her head. One of the very few helpful things her Mum taught her when she was little was to count to the highest number she could think of until she got to sleep, so for possibly the millionth time that evening Brooke began to go through the number line obediently like a small child. 

She’d got to possibly 103 when there was a whisper of a knock at her door, so small that Brooke couldn’t be sure she’d heard it until it came again, a little louder but still incredibly hesitant. This was no member of staff. Dread collecting in the pit of her stomach, Brooke slid out of bed, padded over to the door then peered through the peephole.

Who she saw on the other side made her truly believe that God absolutely hated her with a passion.

Sighing heavily, Brooke opened the door to reveal the one person she didn’t want to see on the other side. Vanessa’s stance was apologetic and she didn’t meet Brooke’s eyes. 

“Hey. You okay?” Brooke asked, admitting to herself that there had to be a good reason she was knocking her door at 1am. 

“I was up at the bar with Monique an’ lost track of time,” she began, her voice soft. “Was only when I got to my room that I realised I must’ve dropped my key card somewhere…I knocked on Jan’s door, but she must be asleep. Reception’s closed…I wouldn’t ask, but…”

Trying her best not to show her visible dread, Brooke simply stood aside and held the door wider open, allowing Vanessa to enter. She thought briefly about switching the bedside light on or offering her a comfier alternative to sleep in than her current velvet leggings and off-shoulder pink top, but she didn’t want to run any risk of her kindness being misconstrued as anything more. Settling down under her sheets and feeling Vanessa slip under the duvet beside her, it was miles away from their last time sharing a bed. Brooke had never felt more tense, terrified of brushing against the other girl. 

“Thanks, B,” Vanessa’s soft voice drifted into the darkness and felt like a stab to Brooke’s gut. “You’re a good friend.”

“It’s alright.” 

Exhausted, Brooke returned to staring into the darkness, resigning herself to the fact that if she wasn’t getting any sleep before she certainly wouldn’t be getting any now that Vanessa was sharing her bed. Her heart ached, hating the fact that she had allowed the other girl to affect her feelings this much and wishing she could return to the old friendship they shared. Anything was better than this.

After an ambiguous amount of time- it could have been hours or minutes- Vanessa spoke again.

“Brooke Lynn?”

The almost-question hung heavy in the air, Brooke’s breath completely stopping at the weight her name suddenly held. She couldn’t bring herself to speak. 

Vanessa, obviously believing the other girl was asleep, gave a little sigh. “Never mind.”

The previously cosy bed suddenly ice cold, Brooke felt goosebumps prickle at her skin. They were centimetres from each other but Vanessa had never felt so far away, and Brooke’s thoughts from earlier still hung like a weight in her mind.


	9. Lobbying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the final day of the Party Conference and the day of Jackie’s big speech. In amongst it all, Brooke’s feelings for Vanessa come to a head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: threat to life

Brooke awoke to her phone’s alarm and an empty bed. 

Adjusting her pillows and sitting up against the headboard, she regarded the crumpled sheets that lay beside her where Vanessa had laid not even as much as ten hours ago. Letting out a little sigh, Brooke felt her heart heavy in her chest as she slid her legs out from underneath the duvet and crossed the room to her bedroom window. Pulling back the curtains, she was dismayed to find that the promised weekend sun had retreated under ominous, all-encompassing grey skies, giving Brooke a view of Bournemouth that made it appear as if it were a tiny town encased in a snow globe of greyscale. 

Thinking about how she’d laid awake in between fitful sleeps as Vanessa slept beside her, her mind racing and her stomach churning, Brooke concluded that the sky was a decidedly matching bleak. Turning from the window and making her way to the shower, Brooke hoped that her usual quick five-minute in-and-out would be enough to somehow erase all the feelings she had for her friend. 

Why had Vanessa left? Brooke didn’t really know, but then again she couldn’t really blame her. She couldn’t help but wonder what Vanessa would have said if Brooke had been brave enough to answer her last night, the sound of her name in that questioning tone still fresh in her mind even after all those hours. What also remained was that sneaking thought that had crept into her head and shocked her- _tell her, tell her, tell her._ It wasn’t a new thought- of course it had drifted in and out of Brooke’s consciousness before, but never had it hit her with such huge clarity as it had last night. Brooke stepped under the water and turned the temperature dial down to what seemed like sub-zero temperatures, trying to focus on the day ahead. Politics seemed so far away from her at the current moment in time. 

Still, she had to at least try to get her head together. First on the agenda was a speech on the country’s obesity crisis delivered by Bianca “Jiggly” Castro, the new Health Minister, which Brooke thought could only be more ironic if Alanis Morrisette was supplying it with backing vocals. Then after that would be the debate surrounding bankers’ bonuses, which would be interesting. It would be the first time the entire cabinet would be in the same room since Sasha’s speech- the first time the party lines would be clarified to everyone present, and Brooke could bet the press would be analysing every breath, every nostril flare, and every raise of an eyebrow that would take place during the debate. Later was Jackie’s speech outlining the policy that would be launched next month. If it went well, she could hopefully try and mend the cracks in the party and get some of her colleagues onside. If it went badly, well. Jackie could well earn herself the name of the woman that single-handedly severed her own party in half. Under the water, Brooke took a deep, shuddering breath, unsure if it was because of the cold or as a result of the stress she was currently under. Most likely a combination of both. 

She got ready in a blur of a blue suit dress, blow-dried hair and hurried makeup, walking faux-confidently down to breakfast despite knowing Vanessa would be there. Her heart hammered in her chest as she gave her room number to the obvious hospitality intern at the front desk, then scanned the large canteen for a sight of Vanessa. Sure enough, there she was- sat by the window, face glowing and beautifully made-up, laughing as she spoke to the girl that Brooke vaguely recognised as the girl she’d met yesterday- Monique, Shea’s advisor. A small flame of jealousy burnt in her throat as she watched Vanessa tip her head back and laugh at something the other girl had said. Confidence rising, she marched over to the table and hovered at the empty seat beside the two girls. 

“Hey,” she sort of announced, the two girls jarring slightly as they looked up at Brooke. Vanessa’s face seemed stuck between falling and smiling, something that confused Brooke. 

“Oh, hey! Brooke Lynn, right?” Monique smiled genuinely, pulling out the seat beside her. “Come sit! I was about to go get another coffee anyway. V, you want anything?”

Another bubble of jealousy burst in Brooke’s heart as Vanessa hit the other girl with a dazzling smile and shook her head. Monique gave a smile back that Brooke was unable to recognise as flirty or not, before walking away in the direction of the cafetiere. Taking her cue, Brooke sat down. Vanessa’s face seemed somewhat stony. 

“Hey,” Brooke began awkwardly. 

“Hey. Sleep well?” Vanessa asked in a rather clipped tone. 

“Um. Not really. You?” Brooke admitted, her feelings stung by the barbed tone of Vanessa’s words. 

“Yeah, pretty shit.” 

Brooke blinked, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she could catch them in her throat. “Is that why you left in the middle of the night?”

Vanessa seemed a little taken aback that Brooke had even acknowledged the situation. Stopping abruptly and blinking back at her, she finally replied. “No, actually. I never left. Woke up at six to get a new key card then got ready and came down here.”

“Oh,” Brooke found herself saying. So Vanessa had stayed the full night after all. She wasn’t really aware of what to do with the information she’d been given, so she simply looked over at Monique, dressed in a lilac shift dress and pouring a coffee with steadfast hands. 

“So, uh. Monique’s cute,” she said bluntly, scanning Vanessa’s face for a reaction. Why the fuck had she said that? She didn’t know. To test Vanessa’s loyalty to her, or to gague Vanessa’s feelings for the other girl, or something equally as stupid. What she did know was Vanessa didn’t really take kindly to the comment, her face almost flinching at Brooke’s words. 

“Uh, yeah. She is,” she said, her expression hurt as she picked up the croissant resting on her plate and tore it in two. _Fuck._ She shouldn’t have said that. For whatever reason it had pissed Vanessa off, and suddenly a detached Brooke had never felt so far away from Vanessa in her life. 

Suddenly, Brooke felt a thud in the seat beside her as Jackie sank into it, Jan taking the seat opposite. Both their hair and makeup was impeccable, a stark contrast to how they must have looked last night mid-phone call to Brooke in the room next door. 

“Morning, all,” Jackie sing-songed, blissfully unaware of the atmosphere Brooke or Vanessa had created. Who had really created it? Brooke didn’t know and it hurt her head to try and blame either of them. 

“Morning. Did you sleep well?” Brooke asked dryly, Jackie keeping her face straight as she sorted her cutlery and moved her knife slightly to the left. 

“I slept great thanks, Brooke. How was your sleep, Jan?” she asked nonchalantly. 

“Oh, not great. I didn’t really get much sleep at all, to be honest,” she said evenly, pushing her hair back from her face and shrugging off her black suit jacket. 

“Sorry to hear that,” Jackie shrugged, her eyes only holding a slight glint as she rose from her seat and smoothed down her dress. “I’m going to get a coffee. Anyone want anything?”

As Jan and Brooke shook their heads, Vanessa rose so abruptly that the glasses shuddered and clinked together. She walked round the table decisively. “Actually Jackie, I’ll come with you.”

As the slightly perplexed Jackie wandered away with the angry girl, Jan narrowed her eyes after them. She turned to Brooke. “Jeez, what the fuck did you do?”

“I don’t know, Jan, okay? I never know what I’ve done with her. One minute she wants to be friends, the next minute she hates me. I’m forever doing stuff and saying stuff and yet none of it seems to be the right thing and all of it seems to offend her. It’s exhausting,” Brooke blurted out, sighing as she leaned back in her chair and rolled her shoulders. Jan raised both eyebrows at the sudden show of raw emotion. If she was being honest, Brooke had shocked herself too.

“Hear me out,” she lowered her voice. “But have you thought about just telling her? It’s been what...months now, surely?”

Instantly, Brooke shook her head, as if to immediately stop the thought from taking roost in her mind. “No. I mean I have thought about it, but it’s not happening. Ever. At all. If I can fuck up the most basic fucking form of friendship then how the hell would I manage to admit my feelings to her?”

“You can talk about feelings! I’ve heard you get quite emotional over Swiss Chalet before.”

Brooke rolled her eyes so hard it almost hurt. 

“Sorry. Wrong time,” Jan laughed slightly, peering up furtively as she saw someone (Brooke couldn’t see) approaching their table. “But seriously. Something to think about.”

It soon became apparent that the people in question were Monique, Vanessa and Jackie, returning with a pot of coffee and tea for the whole table. 

“I know you said you never wanted anything,” Jackie explained. “But we’ve a long day ahead of us, and without some form of caffeine we’re all going to be acting like gibbering zombies.”

Shrugging and trying to ignore the churning in her stomach, Brooke poured herself a coffee. She gradually became aware of another presence in the room; a family- a mum, a dad and two children- staring judgmentally at their table. Brooke frowned at Jan, then at Jackie, who were giving each other guilty looks. 

Well, at least it hadn’t just been Brooke who had hardly slept that evening. 

***

Tapping her foot against the cold hardwood floor of the galleries, Brooke looked at her watch. The debate had meant to start at 12.15 on the dot, but Trinity Taylor had been late and now they were busy getting the Minister mic-ed up for the benefit of the spectators in the gallery and the press. Casting a nervous eye across the enormous round table below her, Brooke considered how the debate would go. 

Sitting to the right of the Chairman was Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Kasha Davis. She had been in the job a while through at least two prime Ministers, and didn’t plan on leaving any time soon. With her wealth of experience and party loyalty, she had been under scrutiny in the media for being incredibly disdainful of the younger, newer Ministers. This, of course, included Jackie. Watching as she combed her long, dark hair with her pointed red talons, Brooke thought that if the party was split Kasha was on the other side of the divide to Jackie. 

Her gaze then took her to Agnes Moore, Secretary of State for Education. She sat at Kasha’s left side and seemed a little unnerved at her proximity to the experienced Minister. New to the job, Agnes had admittedly done amazing work, especially with regards to raising attainment in underprivileged areas. Agnes had been fried under the looking glass of the media to be the first openly trans women to be in a Ministerial position, but no matter how many interviews tried to weave an ugly web of bigotry towards her she always managed to keep her cool, and at the same time deliver some sharp remarks towards a few editors. It had earned her the nickname Peppermint in parliament- highly unprofessional to some, but Brooke liked it, and indeed liked her. She knew that she got along well with Jackie and that their political outlook matched up quite well, and she certainly knew for a fact that Peppermint supported her refugee housing policy. The trouble was, Peppermint wasn’t yet confident enough to do so openly, fearful of rocking the boat and splitting the party even further and consequently drawing more media attention her way. It was frustrating, but Brooke concluded it was fair enough. Still, in this particular debate she could prove a valuable ally to Jackie. 

Then across the table to Peppermint were yin and yang themselves, Sasha Velour and Shea Coulee. They had set themselves up so that they were beside the other, the two seeming to anchor each other as they calmly cast their gaze across the huge wooden table. There was no question here as to what their stance would be towards Jackie’s viewpoints, and Brooke’s hackles were already up.

Beside the two was Trinity, having now taken her seat and tucked her mic pack into the waistband of her skirt. Trinity was known for being a Westminster party girl- always making headlines for each new out-of-office scandal she created for herself, and yet the party would never let her go as, crazy as she was, she was a fierce debater that proved valuable in parliament and as a media representative. Brooke wasn’t really sure of her as an ally to Jackie. She was close with Shea and Sasha, but still disagreed with a lot of their policies. Undecided. 

Brooke flew round the rest of the circle as she scanned the party’s longer-standing members: Maxine Malanaphy, Minister for Environment, Food and Local Affairs. One of Jackie’s big allies but probably too afraid to speak up. Latrice, Communities and Government Minister. Strong ally to Jackie and would probably cut through her opposition’s bullshit. Cynthia Lee Fontaine, International Development. Mad as a brush with debating skills to match. Probably has stronger opinions on how to make cinnamon toast than she does on banker’s bonuses and will probably be lost in her own world for the whole debate. Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Tatianna Santolini. Very much her own person, unlikely to side with anybody and will go where her own opinions take her. Likely about as useless to Jackie in this debate as a rampant rabbit in a convent. Bianca “Jiggly” Castro, Minister for Health. She could be valuable, Brooke thought, as she glanced at the woman giving Jackie a friendly nod of acknowledgement from across the table. Then, Sasha Belle from Transport and Nina Bo’Nina Brown from Work and Pensions. Unlikely to be particularly warm to Jackie as a new Minister. 

Brooke sat back in her seat in the galleries. It was difficult to sit comfortably when she had Jan on her left, radiating tension and anxiety, and Vanessa on her right still bristling with anger over their minor run-in this morning. Brooke was exasperated. If there was the time to get Vanessa alone and speak with her, to ask her what exactly she’d done wrong and why she was annoyed at her this-damn-time, she would have taken the opportunity. But the day had already been long and busy, and Brooke had convinced herself that that of course was the only reason she hadn’t taken Vanessa to one side and asked her what was truly going on. 

The reality was that she was scared shitless.

The banging of a small gavel against a rubber square made Brooke jump out of her reverie. The Chairman, an old, fat man who sat at the top of the table, made to speak. 

“I call this debate to order,” he half-coughed, in a voice that belonged to someone who had smoked 50 cigarettes a day for the past 30 years. “The members of the house shall begin today’s debate surrounding banker’s bonuses and if it is moral and just for this government to continue to support them. This debate will adjourn at one o’clock. We have apologies from the Chancellor of the Exchequer.”

Brooke scoffed and leaned into Jan. “Possibly the person with the most relevant shit to say about this entire debate and he’s not here because he’s too hungover to get out of bed. Fantastic.”

There was a brief pause which only served to heighten the tension. 

“I’d like to start by coming to Ms. Brown from the Department of Work and Pensions who, in the absence of the Chancellor, is the Minister who can give us all the current perspective of the party on this matter.”

All eyes turned to Nina who simply snorted through her nose. “Well, I think the ship has pretty much sailed on what the actual _perspective of the party_ is on this, because there is no one perspective within the party any more concerning quite a lot of matters, least of all this one. Would you like to hear the line we have been given?” 

The Chair looked slightly taken aback by her challenging tone. “If you could, please, Ms. Brown.”

“Okay, well,” the woman started off, throwing her hands up. “The party line is that after the crash of the banks a couple of years ago, we cannot afford to take the bonuses of bankers away and risk demotivation and a decline in the profession. We need experienced bankers to try and clean up the financial mess within the country.”

“Experienced bankers got us into this mess, what makes you think they’re going to get us out of it?” Jackie immediately threw her hat into the ring. Her voice was strong, ringing through the microphone and filling the room, and was at odds with Nina’s lethargic tone. The rows of press shifted and sat up, craning their necks to get a better view of proceedings. Brooke’s stomach clenched involuntarily. 

Nina, for her part, was giving Jackie an unblinking, patient look, rather like that of a reptile. “I never said what I _thought._ I stated what the party line was. But you seem like you have quite the strong opinion, Ms. Cox, so please do share it.” 

Brooke exhaled sharply. This was exactly what the three of them had advised Jackie not to do, put her opinion out into the open first and have the others give opposing views after instead of Jackie being the opposition. Jackie sat up in her seat, her posture fixed. 

“Personally I think it’s a joke that we’re still giving out bonuses to what is already the very top tier of our society. It goes against all the party’s values and is quite frankly reminiscent of a policy that our opposition would dream up. This money should be focused on the worst off in our society, it should be poured into supporting our NHS, even put it into apprenticeship training or graduate schemes if you don’t want people to become demotivated. But hell, don’t give it to those that are already ten times better off than the average citizen.”

Jan suddenly burst into frenzied clapping, which some members of the gallery joined in with. Others craned their heads as Brooke frantically seized her friend’s hands and stopped her from going any further. 

“What the hell are you doing?”

“It was a good point! I’m going to support her,” Jan unashamedly defended herself. The banging of the gavel made them both turn back to the debate. 

“Members of the gallery are reminded that applause and cheers are forbidden during all party conference debates,” the chair growled, red-faced. He turned to Jackie. “Members of the cabinet are reminded that unparliamentary language is completely prohibited within a party debate.” 

Jackie looked down at the table. 

“I’d like to just ask Ms. Cox why she feels this goes against the party’s values when our party is quite literally the party of the working people. Who illustrates the average working citizen more than a banker?” Sasha Velour piped up, her tone that questioning, smug, punchable one that made Brooke’s blood boil. 

“The average working citizen does not make upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year and drive a bl-” Jackie briefly stopped her rant and corrected herself. “Drive a Rolls Royce to work. I have just described a banker. Those people do not need bonuses when that is what they are currently making.”

“I know many bankers who are making thirty thousand pounds a year, living in a one-bedroom flat and commuting to work using public transport. Your description doesn’t quite match up,” Trinity Taylor piped up disdainfully from across the table. 

“The bankers you know are on a starting salary and living in London. There’s your answer to that. These aren’t the bankers who are receiving these bonuses, as well you know,” Jackie fired back, narrowing her eyes at the other Minister. 

“I think we do have to remember that we can’t just simply stereotype a banker. The situation is very nuanced, of course, but Jackie is talking about the bigger picture,” Latrice cut into the conversation in a smooth, measured tone. 

“If we’re looking at the bigger picture, then here it is; some people do a very difficult job and must be paid accordingly for that. That is why the bonuses exist,” Shea Coulee folded her arms and rested them on the table languidly. Brooke watched as Jackie widened her eyes incredulously. 

“Oh, so we can dole this kind of money out to bankers but we don’t have any money for nurses, for firefighters, for the police, for teachers? That’s absolute crap, take your head out your-”

“Ms. Cox!” the Chair boomed, interrupting. “This is your second time having been disciplined for your decorum within the debate, this is your second strike. Behave.”

“Of course- apologies, Chairman. My point is simply that Ms. Coulee’s point is just completely void.”

“Teachers were given a one percent pay rise just last year under this government,” Peppermint spoke up calmly. “So the point isn’t exactly null and void.”

“A whole one percent? Well jeez, aren’t we just so amazingly generous,” Tatianna Santolini chimed in, earning a whoop of laughter from Jackie and Latrice. The Chair banged the gavel against the rubber raucously. Order was restored. 

“Can we all attempt to calm it down a bit? We’re in a party debate, not a Spice Girls concert. Some of us are really lowering the tone,” Trinity Taylor drawled from across the table to Jackie. 

“I would rather we were being passionate and involved when it comes to the redistribution of wealth in our society,” Jackie spoke, her tone cutting. “And it seriously disturbs me to think that some members of the party can’t bring themselves to be a little more animated instead of the taxidermied animals I’m looking at just now!”

Jan let out a whoop from beside Brooke, causing all eyes from the tables to shift upwards to where the three advisors sat. Brooke cringed. 

“Any members of the gallery that are intent on causing a ruckus will be escorted from the debate, I hope I am making myself clear!” the Chair spoke up once again, clearly annoyed. His eyes fell right on Brooke, Vanessa and Jan, and Brooke was now only more tense. As the debate continued, she leant across to Jan. 

“Cut that crap out or we’ll be asked to leave,” she hissed, Jan red-faced beside her. 

The debate was continuing, Sasha Velour’s drawl of a voice filling the room. 

“The fact of the matter is, there is a wage gap between the salaries of those that work in the public sector- firefighters, nurses, refuse collectors- and people like bankers, private sector surgeons, even MPs. This is because these people have to study harder, train more, acquire more skills.”

“What, you’re saying anyone could just go into a burning room and wave a hose around?” Max Malanaphy spoke up, her face set in a disapproving sneer. For the first time in the debate, Sasha’s face took on a worried look. 

“No, of course not, but-”

“I’d love to see you try that, Ms. Velour. Really,” Tatianna smirked, earning a blurt of laughter from Jackie. 

“Can we return to the point and stop slinging around ad-hominem attacks?” Shea bristled at Sasha’s side. “Nobody is saying that firefighters do unskilled work. But the time, effort, money and resources that people put into entering the highest-paid jobs surely means that they should get something back? Ergo higher earnings and bonuses.”

“But why should they- why should _we-_ be paid disproportionately more?” Jackie challenged. Shea turned to her directly, her eyes narrowed. 

“Oh, so are you saying you personally would take a pay cut, Ms. Cox?”

There was a beat of silence. Jackie straightened her posture and smiled proudly. “I absolutely would if it meant I was contributing to the redistribution of wealth within society.”

There was a sudden flurry of activity. The press began furiously tweeting, scribbling and typing, as the other party members around the table muttered under their breath or to each other. The onlookers in the gallery began chatting excitedly to each other. Most disruptive of all, though, was Jan getting to her feet and clapping and cheering her lungs out. The Chair instantly motioned to the doorman at the side of the gallery, then to the three girls sitting together. Immediately he strode forward and approached them. Brooke stood to face him. 

“Look, I get that my friend is being an ass. Can the two of us at least stay?” she motioned to herself and Vanessa. The man smirked. 

“That’ll be right. Come on, out. All three of you.”

Just as the man moved to take her by the elbow, Brooke felt her phone vibrate inside her bag. Her heart seized up as she realised she hadn’t had a phone call from Bianca all weekend, as her parting words had been, “ _I’ll only phone you if the situation gets drastically, critically dire_.”

Speeding out of the gallery and into the hallway outside, Brooke felt around the bottom of her bag for her phone. Locating it, she instantly pulled it out of her bag and swiped across the screen. 

“Bianca, hey.”

“ _Redistribute the wealth_?! Are we a government of fucking communists now?! Is that the new angle? For fuck’s sake, Brooke,” Bianca’s voice came harshly down the line. “What in the fuck is she doing? Sort it out!”

“How do you want me to sort it, Bianca? We’ve just been kicked out because Jan was behaving like she was at fucking Wembley and Jackie’s got her phone off for the debate.”

“Great. Fucking great. I’ve got Sasha Velour intent on splitting seven shades of shit out of the party, Jackie starting a communist revolution, and now a team of advisors that’re about as useless as used condoms,” Bianca sighed heavily, Brooke for once feeling as if the Spin Doctor was truly at her wit’s end. “Look. If Jackie doesn’t nail her speech later, the party’s screwed. We need something that’s going to glue the fractures together. Whatever you lot have helped her write better be fucking Pritt Stick.”

“It’s a good speech, Bianca.”

“Well, I’ll hear it for myself in about two hours. I’ll speak to you then.”

As Bianca hung up, Brooke sank into one of the seats outside the gallery in defeat. She received a questioning look from Vanessa. She didn’t really mind, as at least this meant Vanessa was looking at her. 

“Bianca’s just put loads more new pressure on us. Apparently Jackie’s speech has to appease the public, reunite the party and save the lives of tens of thousands of starving children.”

Vanessa raised an eyebrow before deciding to sit next to Brooke. “Think we could do without the sarcasm right now, B.”

“In times of stress, I make jokes,” Brooke said flatly, then looked up at Jan who was still looking through the glass panels of the gallery door, hoping to catch the rest of the debate. Suddenly, her phone went off loudly in her hand and, looking at the caller ID and then at Brooke and Vanessa, she mouthed a “ _sorry_ ” and dashed off down the hallway until she was out of Brooke’s sight. 

It was just her and Vanessa once more. 

“Times like these I kind of wish I was Silky. Fired and out of the government sphere without all this shit to fret about,” Vanessa deadpanned, leaning back into some semblance of relaxation. Brooke snorted. 

“Me too. Then I realise that’d mean having to work for the civil service before all that and then I think I’d literally rather be John Prescott’s human toilet bowl for the rest of my days.”

Vanessa started cracking up laughing beside her, and Brooke smiled. She hadn’t seen Vanessa laugh like that in a couple of weeks, and to her it was one of the loveliest sights in the world. As her laughter died down into giggles, the doubt began to creep into Brooke’s mind. 

“It is a good speech though, isn’t it? Jackie’s.”

Vanessa turned to look at Brooke, her eyes knocking the air out of her. “I don’t even know anymore. Jan wrote most of it an’ she’s the best at speeches out of the three of us, so prolly.”

Brooke bit a chunk out of her lip, then cursed herself. Looking back at Vanessa, she shuffled the tiniest bit closer towards her and prayed she wouldn’t notice. Right now she was so stressed she desperately needed an anchor, and Vanessa was hers in this moment in time. Suddenly, Vanessa turned to face her, an inquisitive expression painted on her face. Brooke blinked slightly, taken aback by how close together their faces were. 

“‘Ness, I-” Brooke began, unsure what she was really going to continue with. Her nerves were driving her speech and she was afraid to fill the silence with more silence. “I’m really sorry about earlier. At breakfast. I don’t know what I said to hurt you but all I know is that I never intended to. I would never want to make you feel bad. So…sorry.”

Brooke barely had time to read Vanessa’s expression before she pulled the surprised girl in for a hug. She hadn’t been expecting Vanessa’s forgiveness if she was being honest, mainly for the fact that she hadn’t really known what she had been apologising for. Feeling the warmth of the other girl’s arms around her, though, made Brooke think that she didn’t really mind. 

“No, I should be the one apologising,” Vanessa sighed softly. “I was a total dick an’ cranky an’ horrible. I shouldn’t’ve been mad at you.”

Brooke let a beat of silence fill the corridor. Her feelings suddenly became too much for her as she felt Vanessa’s heart thud against her chest. She was about to say something totally obvious and dangerous and scary but she was going to say it anyway, she could feel the words rising in her throat. 

“God. I wish-” 

A great clatter emerged from Brooke’s left which made both girls suddenly jump out of their skin and, accordingly, out of the hug. People began to stream out of the gallery, all murmuring dully to each other about the debate which had just finished. Instantly, an embarrassed Brooke attempted to cover the fact she was ever sitting near Vanessa at all, and reached into her bag for her phone. 

“Jackie will be out by now,” she said quickly, moving to leave and head downstairs to meet her. Her mind was instantly on work again, desperate to push her feelings down once more. She had come way too close to revealing everything. Feeling too ashamed of herself to turn around and register Vanessa’s reaction, Brooke blocked out her peripheral vision and practically tumbled downstairs and into the conference room where all the Ministers were getting de-miced. Advisors were beginning to pour in with her, each to their respective Secretary of State to congratulate or condemn. Her eyes rested on Jackie, gazing downwards with a calm look on her face. She had already had her microphone removed, and was grabbing her bag and making her way to the exit doors where Brooke stood. Brooke was distracted for a second by a clattering of heels beside her- Vanessa had reappeared by her side. 

“Could’ve waited for me,” she said quietly, the tone in her voice tinged with an edge that gave Brooke the wearied impression that perhaps the apology had been for naught and they were both back to square one again. She flashed Vanessa a weak apologetic smile before turning her attentions back to Jackie who stood in front of them. 

“Hey! So?”

Brooke frowned. “So…?”

“How was I?”

Vanessa and Brooke shared an awkward silence. Trying to be helpful, Vanessa cocked her head. “How d’you think you did?”

“I thought I was great, all things considered. Hard when it’s basically you versus the damn lesbian coalition over there,” Jackie curled her top lip and gestured vaguely to where Shea and Sashea were standing close together, talking and smiling. “- but I had a couple people support me that I didn’t think were going to. So that was good.” 

Vanessa grimaced at the optimistic Jackie, the Minister’s face suddenly falling. Jackie turned to Brooke. “What? What have I done?”

“Bianca phoned me.”

Jackie’s face blanched. “Oh no.”

“Yeah.”

“What the hell did I do?!”

Brooke drew her brows together. “I don’t know, Jackie, maybe sitting there cursing and yelling about redistributing the wealth had something to do with it? I mean you sounded like a Communist Gordon Ramsay. You might as well have started foaming at the mouth about the proletariat.”

“But Bianca is SUPER happy with you. Was on the phone to us minutes after you finished sayin’ how proud she was of you. The star of the party, apparently!” Vanessa suddenly blurted out of nowhere, a beaming, slightly manic smile on her face indicating that something was amiss. Brooke followed her darting eyes over Jackie’s shoulder to where Shea, Sasha and Trinity had just moved within earshot. Their gazes suddenly turned to glares and they cast their eyes upon a slightly confused but smiling Jackie. Sasha was the one to speak first, fake-civility coating her words. 

“Oh! Congratulations must be in order then, Jackie. High praise from Bianca!” 

“Must have been watching a different debate to the rest of us, clearly,” Trinity flared her nostrils snootily. Shea let out a snort of a laugh and covered her mouth as Sasha narrowed her eyes in faux-disapproval at her friend. Brooke felt the rage rise in her stomach. 

“You actually might have missed a large majority of the debate, Ms. Taylor, if you were on Tinder underneath the desk like you were at last year’s conference,” she snapped. Instantly, she saw Vanessa’s mouth drop completely open out of the corner of her eye. Sasha’s eyebrows flew halfway up her forehead. Trinity simply laughed. 

“I wouldn’t start talking about missing half the debate when it wasn’t me who got myself _forcibly removed_ because I didn’t know debate decorum or protocol. So let’s get that right for a start,” she smirked, then let the smirk drop off her face as she addressed a stony-faced Jackie. “Keep your advisors on a tighter fucking leash next time, Jaqueline. Preferably with a muzzle.”

As the three women walked away, Jackie folded her arms and fixed Brooke with a glare. “Thanks for making me infinitely more popular with everyone, hothead.”

“Well, you didn’t need much help in that department.”

“Thanks for covering for me, V,” Jackie’s face turned an exhausted sort of grateful, Vanessa giving her a supportive smile in return. 

“‘S fine. But without puttin’ too much pressure on, this speech needs to deliver. Bianca’s more or less said that this is the thing that’s gonna unite or divide the party.”

Brooke rolled her eyes and turned to her friend. “Jeez, why not calm her right down before the big speech, Vanessa!”

Vanessa gave a forced, false smile and her voice took on a fake-saccharine tone as she turned to address Brooke. “Well the thing is, Brooke Lynn, sometimes when you work with people you actually tell ‘em important shit. Like, for example, the fact their boss is receivin’ death threats?”

Brooke simply blinked in response. _Yeah, definitely back to square one._ How was it possible in the space of approximately five minutes to repair and then rip apart her relationship with Vanessa? As Brooke cursed herself for what seemed to have been the millionth time, she turned her attentions back to Vanessa and Jackie, who were still talking. Jackie had her phone out and was scrolling through Twitter. 

“Oh God. I’m a Twitter Moment. Why am I a Twitter Moment?”

Vanessa frowned as she crossed over to Jackie’s side and read over her shoulder. “ _Has Jackie Cox gone slightly Communist? The left-winger saw red during a debate at her party’s conference_.”

“Saw red. That’s a cracker,” Brooke said flatly. 

“Where is Jan? I have to see Jan,” Jackie suddenly frowned, putting her phone away and looking to Brooke and Vanessa for answers. 

“Had to take a phone call. Not too sure where she went, though,” Vanessa shrugged apologetically. “How come?”

“She wrote the majority of the speech, I want her to go through it again to see if there’s anything more to add in,” Jackie instantly bluffed, beginning to walk away from the two girls. 

“Y’know we can do that, right?” Vanessa called after her a little incredulously. Jackie feigned deafness and continued to make her way down the hall. Sighing, Vanessa turned back to Brooke, then cast her gaze to the floor. 

“So are we good?” Brooke asked her, now that they were once again alone. Vanessa cast her eyes briefly to the ceiling, then smiled and heaved a wearied sigh. 

“Yeah. We good,” she nodded, although even that seemed forced. “You wanna go grab lunch?”

Feeling like refusing the invitation would only serve to further drive them apart, Brooke wordlessly nodded. As the two of them walked silently down the corridor, Brooke knew even less about where she stood with Vanessa, and had never been more confused. 

***

Brooke hadn’t eaten much at lunch. Then again, neither had Vanessa. They had both spent the last hour in the hotel restaurant, picking away at their respective meals and voicing their worries to each other about how the speech would go. It was good to vent to Vanessa, and it was good to have Vanessa vent to her. Sharing their fears made Brooke happy and comforted; if nothing else it meant that they were at least behaving like friends again, and despite her feelings for Vanessa Brooke still loved having her around even platonically. 

Vanessa was afraid that if Jackie’s speech went badly someone would be fired, and she was convinced that that somebody would be her. Brooke tried to console her and tell her that out of everybody, she wouldn’t be the one to be sacked. If anything, it would be a Silky-esque situation- one of the comms girls would be let go to make up the numbers. Unfortunately, that only made Vanessa feel even worse. On reflection, Brooke pondered out loud that if anyone should be sacked over the speech then it really should be Jan since she wrote the majority of it. Inwardly, Brooke considered that that would probably be the best outcome for preserving Jan and Jackie’s relationship. 

Brooke shared her fears too- fake ones. She couldn’t really bring herself to tell Vanessa she was scared that if Jackie’s speech went badly, it would be likely that Brooke would no longer be considered for the Number 10 job. She had been working so hard recently and had tried to make sure her efforts would be rewarded, and would be gutted if she was no longer to be considered. 

No- she couldn’t open up and tell that to Vanessa because that would make her seem vulnerable, and she would feel like an idiot if she showed Vanessa that side of herself. So she made something up, lied about the fact that she was worried for the state of the party and how the speech would affect it- except it wasn’t really a lie, she was worried about that too, just less so than how the outcome of the speech would affect her. They’d shared a moment when Vanessa took Brooke’s hand across the table while reassuring her that it would probably all be fine. She stroked her knuckle with her thumb a couple of times with a caring look on her face that bordered on loving. This was where Brooke was confused- in moments like these it seemed as if Vanessa maybe even had feelings for her, and it gave her a sort of optimistic outlook on the whole situation. 

And then the moment had been cut short- Monique had arrived beside the table and Vanessa’s face had lit up when she saw her, and Brooke suddenly felt bitter and rotten because how could she compare to Monique? She was so bubbly and cheerful and outgoing, and really everything that Brooke wasn’t. Vanessa seemed so happy talking to her. 

So Brooke had slipped away- gone to find two other girls who she didn’t mind third wheeling as much, because at least Jan and Jackie just made her feel vaguely nauseous and not as if her heart was breaking. Knocking on the door of room 512, Brooke heard a small flurry from within the room before it opened, then a pause. The door was opened to reveal Jan. She looked a little tired and unsettled. 

“This is Jackie’s room, silly. I could’ve been anyone,” Brooke narrowed her eyes at her friend. Jan rolled her eyes. 

“Peephole,” she simply said, tapping the tiny, circular bit of glass on the outside of the door then stepping aside to let Brooke come in. Shrugging and internally concluding that it was a fair excuse, Brooke made her way inside. 

“I came up because I didn’t fancy- oh shit, what happened to you?” Brooke immediately stopped in her tracks as she rounded the corner of the room and saw Jackie curled up in bed with her knees tucked under her chin. Her face was streaked with black tear tracks and her neck and collarbones were dappled with angry red blotches. Beside her sat a ripped envelope and a piece of paper with something typed onto it- not her speech, but something that consisted of only one line, written in chunky font. Jackie didn’t reply. Instead, Jan moved to beside the bed, picked up the piece of paper and handed it to Brooke. In standard Times New Roman font, it simply said, 

**Hope your excited for the speech your about to make because it’s going to be your last!** **☺**

Shuddering, Brooke blinked at the piece of paper. Her insides had suddenly gone cold and a sickening feeling was setting in in the pit of her stomach. “How did this…how?”

“Hotel porter brought it up, said a letter had arrived for me. I don’t know how they found out what room I was in or…anything,” Jackie said lifelessly, finally looking up and meeting her eyes with Brooke’s. “We phoned Bianca. She’s said that she’ll push for the case to be taken to Scotland Yard, but there isn’t much else she can do. If I get more security, people are going to wonder why. The last thing I need is for more scrutiny my way.”

Brooke exhaled deeply and looked to the floor. “Did she say anything else?”

“She said I didn’t have to do the speech if I wasn’t up for it.”

Brooke looked at Jan, who was now sitting close beside Jackie on the bed and had wrapped one arm around her in a hug. She looked back at the Minister. “Are you going to drop out?”

Jackie sighed and tore a hand through her hair. “I don’t know. I’m bloody...rattled, which isn’t an ideal state to be in before you deliver a speech to make or break the party.” 

“I’ve told her she shouldn’t do it,” Jan piped up, her opinion more for Jackie’s benefit than Brooke’s. Jackie looked slightly long-sufferingly at Brooke with glassy eyes. Brooke frowned at Jan. 

“It’s not your decision to make, Jan, it’s Jackie’s.”

Jan’s eyes darkened. “I’m her fucking advisor, aren’t I? I’m giving her advice!”

Silenced, Brooke looked up at the ceiling, unable to meet either of the two girls’ eyes. Finally, she spoke, addressing Jackie. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you? I know what you’re like.”

There was a beat of silence, then Jackie nodded very slowly. Frustrated, Jan retrieved her arm from around her girlfriend’s shoulders, got up, and walked across the room. Sighing, Jackie reached out to her.

“Jan, don’t go in a huff-”

“I’m getting you a damn makeup wipe!” Jan snapped, then paused, sighed, and turned to face Jackie, her expression now softer. “I may not want you to do the speech, but Brooke’s right. It’s your decision, you’re a sentient being. I can’t make you do anything.”

Jackie gave her the smallest grateful smile, which Jan returned before disappearing into the bathroom. Brooke unclenched her stomach, trying to relax, but the situation was still concerning. She sat down at the foot of the bed. 

“You know you really don’t have to do this,” she murmured, in a voice she hoped only Jackie could hear. Stretching, Jackie nodded. 

“I know. I’m not doing it because I have to. I’m doing it because I want to.”

Brooke sighed and nodded in response. “Okay. Well let’s get you cleaned up, because you’ve got an hour.”

And so an hour later the three girls plus Vanessa found themselves in the wings of the assembly room with an audience filing in from the hall. Reluctantly Brooke had told Vanessa about the newest threat, and Vanessa reacted in the same way Jan had- the speech was a bad idea, Jackie wasn’t in the right frame of mind to go through with it, it was going to do more harm than good- but Jackie’s mind was made up and now she was pacing nervously backstage, ripping the corner of one of her cue cards with anxiety. None of the three advisors could speak. 

“What the hell am I doing?” Jackie finally exhaled, exasperation coating her words. “I’m a damn mess and in about three minutes I need to deliver a speech that’s going to make or break my career? At this rate it’d be easier if I actually did get assassinated halfway through.”

“There’s still time to back out?” Brooke hesitantly suggested. Vanessa turned and gave her a look of disbelief. 

“What kinda advisor are you?” she asked her in frustration, then walked forward and put her hands either side of Jackie’s shoulders. A little shocked, Jackie shifted her gaze from her cue cards to the tiny girl in front of her. “Jaqueline Cox. You are gonna be amazing. We’ve practised this speech for weeks, you practically got it memorised! The letter was an empty threat and whoever sent it wants you to back out. Don’t give ‘em what they want. Go out and deliver that speech like the fuckin’ amazing Minister you are. Okay, if you bomb it, you bomb it. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it- _if_ we come to it. Either way, we’ll all be proud of you, girl.”

Jackie blinked three times in quick succession, sniffed, and then pulled Vanessa into a hug. “I’ve got to do a speech in a sickeningly short length of time and you’re making me cry? Screw you, Vanessa. Screw all three of you. Come here.”

Jan smiled and eagerly ran towards the hug, while Brooke gave a long-suffering sigh before grinning just like Jan had and then joining her friends. 

As she stood with her arms around the three girls, Brooke took a moment to consider that they were probably the closest she was going to ever get to a real family, and she didn’t know whether that was heartwarming or fucking sad. 

The affectionate display was interrupted as someone tapped Jackie on the shoulder. It was a young man, probably around 20 or so. He was wearing a suit and wielding a clipboard. “Ms. Cox? Whenever you’re ready, everyone is seated.”

The four girls shared a nervous glance and Brooke felt panic rise up in her throat. Jackie simply raised her eyebrows, took a long, shuddery breath, and then let it go. “Here goes nothing.”

Vanessa, Jan and Brooke watched in fear as Jackie took shaky step after shaky step out towards the podium as the members of the audience clapped. Giving a small smile, she took a sip of water, then another deep breath as the room fell silent. 

“Good morning. Erm, afternoon. Good afternoon,” she began, the visible shaking of her hands concealed underneath the podium to the audience but noticeable to Brooke. Her heart began to slowly sink. “My aim today is to set out the, um, excuse me-”

With that, Jackie erupted into a cough. Reaching out to her glass, she took another sip of water. Brooke’s breath began to become shallower. This was not a good start- it was as if Jackie had forgotten the whole speech. Brooke felt Vanessa give a panicked gulp from her side. Perhaps it was the adrenaline and fear clouding her judgement but Brooke reached across with her left hand and took Vanessa’s right hand in her own. She didn’t look to see her reaction. 

Sip of water finished with, Brooke watched as Jackie gazed down at her cue cards, then looked to her right to where her three advisors stood. With her free hand, Brooke made a sort of “carry on” motion, Vanessa gave a thumbs up, and from her side Brooke could hear that Jan was mouthing something. Whatever it was, it seemed to bring the life back into Jackie’s eyes. The Minister looked back out into the audience, straightened her posture, and began again. 

“When I joined parliament back in September, I made it abundantly clear that my aim for the next five years was to welcome more refugees into our country. The rough figure that I gave was 25,000, yet I was told that it would not be possible. As it stands, there are currently roughly 610,213 empty homes in England, 34,000 empty homes in Scotland, 23,000 empty properties in Wales, and at least 20,000 in Northern Ireland. This gives us a combined total of 687,213 empty living spaces across the UK. It would seem that there is more than enough housing to supply refugees with in their move to the country. But what about affordability or renovation of such spaces? Members of the party, today I outline my plans for what I believe is a massive benefit to all aspects of our society- new communities.

“Currently in the UK, there are 480,000 developmental plots of land lying in limbo in cities and towns up and down the country. This does not include the 600,000 plots that some of the country’s biggest contractors are sitting on as a result of land banking. Why are they sitting on these plots? Because they want a good deal for their land. Our plan is to give them that deal. The government will team up with four of the country’s biggest housebuilders and develop these plots of land. Now, yes, this will cost us money. But before I disclose the expenditure, let me further outline the policy. 

“These plots of land will be used to build communities where diversity is the most prominent feature. Refugee families will be interspersed with first-time buyers, young families, retired couples looking to downsize, people of all backgrounds. We know we can fill these houses because they will all be Modulus homes. Modulus is an innovative style of prefab housing which we hope will remove the stigma attached to prefabricated buildings. They all come with eco-efficient features and will be built into terraces. The cost to build a two-bedroomed Modulus home is less than fifty thousand pounds. Add this to our expenditure of £1.5 billion on land plots, we’re up to about two billion pounds to house not only 25,000 refugees, but hundreds of thousands of our own citizens as well. 

“How will we get our money back? We will receive it through economy. We will receive it through investing money in building new schools and business opportunities, so that the people arriving here will immediately contribute to the economy. This benefits our communities and local governments. It benefits our Department of Work and Pensions. It benefits international trade, culture, environment, food and local affairs, international development. It benefits our government, our country, and our party. It benefits our society. It immerses people into other cultures and other ways of life. Our country’s GDP will grow by 0.2 to 0.5 percent. Putting all of this aside, all the economic benefits, social benefits, cultural benefits- it is quite simply the right thing to do. It is the morally correct thing to reach out when we see someone else in trouble. We as a nation will be seen not as heartless, but as having heart, as helping people get back on their feet again. We are the party of the working people, but we are also the party that cares, that helps, that does the right thing. I hope with all my heart you will back this policy as much as I do. Thank you.”

The moment Jackie stopped speaking, a massive weight felt as if it had been lifted off Brooke’s heart, and the whole room erupted in applause. A delighted Jackie turned and looked over at her advisors again. Jan was jumping up and down and clapping as if her life depended on it. Vanessa was squeezing Brooke’s hand so hard that she felt sure it would fall off, but she didn’t quite mind. Out in the audience, she spotted Sasha Velour’s massive shock of white blonde frizz in one of the front rows. She had an impressed smile on her face. 

Just then, Brooke’s phone gave a single buzz. A text from Bianca. 

_B: THANK FUCK FOR THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

Snorting to herself, Brooke shrugged and put her phone away. As always Bianca had a knack for saying, or typing, what everyone was thinking.

***

Contrary to what its ridiculous name would suggest, the Diversity Disco was proving a roaring success with MPs, Ministers and party members alike. Looking over the huge function room from her spot at the bar, Brooke could see various politicians in various states of disarray. Jackie was happily celebrating with Jiggly and Latrice, clearly relieved her speech had been a success and was on her way to being very drunk despite it only being 9pm. Then again, Brooke herself was two glasses of wine down and so should have been pretty cheerful, maybe even happily tipsy. But casting her glance across the room once more, her eyes rested on a familiar pair, and she felt worse than ever. 

Vanessa and Monique had been curled up in the corner all evening, not once moving from the small booth across the room. Brooke would try her best not to look over, but every time she kept feeling her gaze being pulled towards the two like a magnet, and Vanessa would be laughing, or smiling, or leaning in close with Monique murmuring something. She’d figured it out now- the reason why Vanessa had been so pissed off with her at breakfast upon Brooke’s suggestion that Monique was cute was because she was annoyed it seemed that Brooke was making a play for her. 

Somehow, Brooke knew that her and Vanessa weren’t going to happen. And that was okay, it really was. But she kept being plagued with little feelings and memories and intuitions that maybe Vanessa felt _something_ , even if it was just the smallest hint of a crush. The more wine she drank, the more Brooke had to push down the impulse to tell Vanessa everything- how, Brooke didn’t know, but anything had to be better than this absolute hell. 

She would‘ve talked about it with Jan, except Jan was nowhere to be seen. Brooke concluded it was probably for the best- in the state Jackie was in, she wasn’t sure if she could count on her to be in any way subtle with her girlfriend. Momentarily, Brooke thought about phoning Yvie, then thought better of it. She had finally concluded that she was alone with her feelings when out of nowhere, Vanessa herself appeared at the bar next to her. 

“Hey,” she smiled, a little tipsy but not quite yet over the threshold of drunk. “Hardly seen you all night! I missed you.”

Brooke couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Missed you too, you idiot. Although you’re doing me proud. You’re well on your way to getting a solid level of wrecked. Might get your own article in the Sun.”

“Behave,” Vanessa whacked her on the arm and laughed. Her tone shifted to one Brooke couldn’t quite read. “Hey, do you wanna come sit? I wanna talk to you properly.”

What the fuck did that mean? Vanessa seemed to backtrack, her eyes growing wide. “As in, like, to catch up.”

Brooke smiled happily at the welcome invitation, then suddenly the corner of the room caught her eye and she saw Monique once more, sitting on her phone and waiting patiently. With a stab to her heart, Brooke shook her head. “Nah, it’s okay. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of…you know.”

Vanessa frowned. “In the way of what?” 

Brooke gave a little shrug. “You and Monique. I wouldn’t want to be a massive third wheel.”

“What?!” Vanessa suddenly screwed her face up. “Is that what you think this is?!”

_Fuck_. Brooke knew she had somehow fucked up again but she couldn’t help but push it, the words escaping from her mouth all too quickly. “Well, yeah. It’s clear you like her and I don’t want to fuck anything up for you by hanging around.”

At her words, Vanessa’s whole expression dropped. Her face seemed to crumple into a heap and she sucked her bottom lip between her teeth. “You know what, Brooke Lynn? You are the most frustrating person I’ve ever fuckin’ met in my life. I’m done trying to make shit obvious for you, it’s clear now all you wanna do is avoid me.”

Stunned, Brooke watched as Vanessa folded her arms and walked straight out of the hall without her jacket or bag. Where she was going, she didn’t know, and she didn’t really care to think about it. All she knew was that she didn’t even have Vanessa to call a friend any more. That was surely her final life used up- she had fallen out and made amends with her too many times to gain her back again. Did she really even want a friend who she had such strong feelings for anyway? Brooke didn’t know. She’d gone through so much with Vanessa in this one small day, and it just seemed like their relationship nowadays consisted solely of Brooke doing things to piss Vanessa off. It was exhausting. 

“You should go after her, you know.”

Puzzled, Brooke followed the deep voice round to behind where she stood. It was Sasha, leaning against the bar having just bought a drink. She’d clearly heard every word. Too tired to make a cutting remark about eavesdropping, Brooke just slid back onto the bar stool she’d been sitting at before. 

“I think my bridges are completely burnt there, so it’s pointless,” she said, her voice sounding as empty as she felt inside. 

Christ, this was the worst feeling. Knowing it was over, and that there was nothing she could do now to repair things. Sasha seemed to read her mind. 

“Unless you’ve explicitly told her to go fuck herself, your bridges aren’t burned,” Sasha continued, sipping on what appeared to be a whisky over ice. There was a small pause in which Brooke considered her words. Sasha took that as a cue to continue. “She your girlfriend?”

Brooke let out a derisive laugh. “I wish.”

Sasha gave a contemplative nod. “So just sex, then.”

“No! No, it’s not like that. We’re friends, as well as working together. But I like her. I’ve liked her for ages,” Brooke explained, thinking that it was definitely the alcohol that was making her vent about her love life to Sasha fucking Velour. The other woman was silent and looking at Brooke, so she carried on. “It was easy to ignore at first. I could deal with it. But it’s been so many months now, and the feelings haven’t gone away. I mean if anything they’ve become more intense. I’ve been trying to distance myself from her, but it’s fucking impossible when we work together.”

Sasha just nodded understandingly. There was something genuine to her now, something unlike the stuck-up air that normally surrounded her. Brooke wondered if it was all an act. 

“Jackie’s a very good politician,” Sasha finally spoke, her tone earnest. It took Brooke aback a little. “Her speech was just what the party needed, I think.”

“Thanks,” Brooke said, surprised at Sasha’s honesty. There was a moment of silence in which Brooke wondered if Sasha would speak again, then she concluded that was probably all the praise Jackie would get from her. “Do you think Trinity’s pissed at what I said earlier?”

Sasha let out a huge bubble of laughter. “Pissed? Oh no, she loved it. She loves someone who can give as good as they get. I think she’s jealous that her advisors aren’t nearly as loyal to her. Apparently Eureka just sits eating Ryvita all day and responding to policy ideas with a half-hearted shrug.” 

Brooke laughed quietly, appreciative of the diversion to the conversation. Looking at Sasha, she wondered how low her defences were down. She was still so bothered about Vanessa and everything that had happened, and even though she had basically given up, she still desperately wanted to fix things. “How did you and Shea get together?”

Sasha didn’t particularly seem shocked that Brooke had guessed about the two of them, and simply took another sip from her whisky, careful not to stain the glass with red lipstick. 

“Oh yes, me and Shea. The worst kept secret of Westminster- well, apart from the PM and his secretary,” Sasha raised her eyebrows, then set her glass down at the bar. “I told her first. I was honest with her. It was scary, of course it was scary. But the thing that comforted me most was that deep down, I knew she liked me back. There were little things- little signals and signs she sent me which I never noticed at the time, but looking back I could see them for what they were. And that helped give me confidence. Well, that and a hell of a lot of whisky.”

Sasha’s words struck Brooke dead like a lightning bolt. Suddenly, Brooke was convinced more than ever that the little things she had noticed about her interactions with Vanessa actually meant something. 

“Fuck. I have to find Vanessa.” 

Sasha raised her eyebrows again. “Jeez, I really wasn’t expecting that to be as inspiring as it was. If it gives you any optimism we went at it about five consecutive times after we actually admitted we had feelings for each other.” 

Brooke scrunched up her nose, then thought about it. “That’s actually impressive, good for you.”

“Phone her. See where she is.”

Brooke looked over to the corner table where Vanessa had sat with Farrah. Nobody remained in the seats, and the only things that were a giveaway that anyone had ever sat there were Vanessa’s clutch bag and jacket. Thinking back to Vanessa in her black and pink dress, Brooke realised it didn’t have pockets. 

“She’s not got her phone,” Brooke said, then thinking harder, “Or her key card. Shit, she could be anywhere.”

Sasha frowned. “You know her. Where would she go if she needed to clear her head? Where would _you_ go if you needed to clear your head?”

Brooke swept a hand through her hair. They were in Bournemouth, for Christ’s sake, what was here? The only place Brooke could think of was....

“Fuck. What a massive cliché. Okay, I think I know where she is. Thanks.”

Brooke went to walk away, but suddenly she turned and stopped herself in her tracks. “You’re a very good politician too, Sasha.”

The other woman smiled brightly and wordlessly raised her glass in her direction. Her mind back on Vanessa, Brooke briskly trotted through the hall in her heels, took the lift up to her room, ripped off her heels and swapped them for a pair of trainers, pulled on her massive, warm parka and ran downstairs straight out of the hotel. She hoped to God she was right about where Vanessa had gone. Tearing down the pavement towards the promenade she got as far as the pier and the big wheel when she realised the sheer scale of the place and how unlikely it was that she would actually find Vanessa. Still she kept running along the pavement past the seafront, the beach running parallel to her and the wind roaring in her ears, helping significantly to drown out all the insecurities that threatened to fill her mind. It suddenly occurred to her that in her chunky platform boots Vanessa probably wasn’t making much progress across the sand. Hopping over the railing, Brooke began to run along the sand, the beginnings of raindrops pitter-pattering onto the sand around her. Seeing someone in the distance she stopped and craned her neck, trying to work out who it was. A man walking a dog. Whipping around, she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure slowly wandering across the sand. She was hugging herself tightly in a vain attempt to shield herself from the biting wind. 

“‘Ness!” Brooke yelled. She had assumed the wind would muffle her cry, but the figure suddenly stopped in its tracks and raised its gaze from the sand.

Vanessa.

Brooke began to run to where she stood, the complete unparalleled nerves making her legs shake like jelly with every step, but nothing slowing her down. Finally she reached Vanessa. To Brooke’s relief she hadn’t been crying, and only had a displeased scowl on her face. 

“How did you…why’re you here?” Vanessa sighed in resignation, clearly not wanting to hear anything Brooke had to say. Brooke paused for a second. Why _was_ she here? She was actually going to do it. She was actually going to admit everything to Vanessa, and no situation she had ever been in at work had ever, ever been as scary as this. 

“You were right,” she started, her voice low and slightly breathless. “I have been avoiding you. And I know I’ve said it a million times already, but I’m sorry, okay? But you’re right. I’ve been trying not to spend time around you because every time I do I feel like I’m going into cardiac arrest.”

Fuck. It was out, the biggest hint Brooke could possibly have given her, and yet Vanessa looked confused. 

“Brooke, you’re not making any sense,” she said softly, her tone and expression now less angry but more curious, and perhaps more hopeful. Thinking about what Sasha had said, Brooke took a deep breath. 

“‘Ness, I know I’ve not been acting like it. But I really fucking like you,” she said bluntly, her stomach almost cramping in anxiety. She’d said it, and suddenly she felt the exact same as if she was at the very top of a rollercoaster; about to come plummeting down into the great unknown, her head tilted only towards the sky in optimism, unable to see the ground. She could barely see the rest of Vanessa’s face, the contact Brooke was making with her eyes intense and unwavering as if she was locked in, and of fucking _course_ it was raining right now. “I’ve liked you for ages. Basically since like, a month after you started at the department. I thought it was going to be a fleeting thing but fuck, the feelings haven’t gone away and it’s pissing me off because I- I don’t know if you feel the same, and it’s fucking cutting me up inside because it’s ruining our friendship and I just…I just needed to know if you felt the same about me because…I don’t even know where I stand any more.”

Brooke watched as Vanessa’s mouth dropped open, first her expression one of shock, then one of disbelief. “Jesus. Are you…you’re serious?”

And the very second after Brooke nodded, Vanessa closed the gap between them, bringing both her hands up to cup Brooke’s face and kissing her deeply. Brooke felt as if she was completely on fire, burning up and melting all at once because _this was actually happening_ , she had admitted everything and surely this was Vanessa’s way of saying she wasn’t alone in her feelings, that she liked her too. Completely elated, Brooke brought her arms around Vanessa’s tiny waist and held her tightly, part of her afraid to let her go as if it was all really an elaborate daydream. Even though that night after Alyssa’s ball had happened it was as if Brooke was kissing Vanessa for the first time, and everything felt new and amazing and electric and soft all at once. Pulling away and tangling her fingers in Brooke’s hair, Vanessa smiled so brightly at her that it didn’t really even matter that the rain was now battering against them both, flattening Vanessa’s hair and no doubt making Brooke’s frizzy. 

“Confessin’ your feelings to me in the rain. Your stone-cold bitch image is rubbin’ off,” Vanessa teased, bringing a single finger up and tapping Brooke lightly on the nose. She was right, and Brooke felt like a total dippy idiot as she beamed back at her but she was sure she had barely ever felt this happy in her life. Vanessa laughed and continued. “Shame, really. You’re cute when you’re grumpy. S’why I always wind you up so much in the mornings.”

Brooke’s heart felt as if it was swelling up. She couldn’t actually believe it, genuinely couldn’t believe that these things were coming out of Vanessa’s mouth, and yet they were. She liked Vanessa, and Vanessa liked her too, and it was all so terrifying and new but completely exhilarating and Brooke decided that worrying about it could maybe wait. Looking at Vanessa, she decided to make the most of the moment.

“Listen, I never really ate much at dinner-” 

“Was it because you were thinkin’ too much about me?” Vanessa stuck her tongue out, making Brooke’s stomach somersault in the process.

“More like too scared Jackie was going to fuck up the speech,” she bit back, faking being unimpressed but her feelings rendering herself unable to stop smiling. “Anyway, I was going to ask if you wanted to grab food?”

Vanessa smiled and took Brooke’s hand as she turned to walk along the beach. “Sure. You’re payin’, though. Where we going?”

“If I’m paying? Fucking Pizza Hut.”

Vanessa burst out laughing. “That all I get? Christ, I think you used up all the romance in the first five minutes of us seein’ each other.”

“Pizza Express, then.”

“Wow, you sure know how to treat a lady right,” Vanessa deadpanned, the twinkle in her eyes telling Brooke she didn’t really mind.

And as they walked along the beach in the rain holding hands, Brooke thought about what Vanessa had said. Seeing each other. It was a funny expression, one that to many others would seem like a casual thing, but to Brooke it was the best phrase she’d ever heard in her life. 

She was completely, blissfully happy, and the weight that had been on her heart for months on end was finally lifted off her. 


	10. Pairing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Jackie and Jan struggle to keep their relationship a secret, Brooke organises a show-stopping first date for her and Vanessa.

Brooke supposed that night was their first date- a walk along the beach in the pissing rain where she gave Vanessa her jacket and didn’t mind getting drenched, being sat at a table beside the window at Pizza Express and both of them still being entirely too nervous to reach across the table and take the other’s hand, much as Brooke wanted to. Vanessa had ordered one of those pizzas where they cut out the middle of it and fill it with salad, and Brooke had subjected her to her usual gentle bullying- “it’s not called Salad Express”- but with more affection now than she had thought possible before. Occasionally Vanessa would start laughing softly to herself, and upon being questioned by Brooke she’d look down at her lap and smile and say, “Can’t believe I’m actually here, with you, in a capacity that ain’t work related.”

And Brooke had smiled back and concluded that she couldn’t either. 

Then they’d walked back to the hotel where the Diversity Disco seemed to still be in full swing, if Peppermint vomiting into some bushes at the front of the hotel while Trinity smoked beside her was anything to go by. It did little to ruin the atmosphere of the evening, though- Brooke had swallowed her nerves and anxieties and slipped her hand into Vanessa’s about five minutes into the walk back and the other girl had smiled, blushed and squeezed it back, and hadn’t let go since. They’d got the lift up to Vanessa’s floor, where Brooke had insisted on walking her back. 

“Droppin’ me off at my door? Wow, I’ve landed a true lady,” Vanessa laughed, using her free hand to tap Brooke lightly on the nose. Brooke giggled and then, just because it felt right, she pulled Vanessa in and kissed her gently, wrapping her arms around her waist in a soft hug. Brooke felt as if the novelty of being able to actually kiss her would never wear off. 

As Brooke broke away, she frowned apologetically at Vanessa. “I’d have taken you out for drinks, but we’re checking out at 9 tomorrow, you know? And I really want to try and get some rest.” 

Vanessa smiled and nodded understandingly and Brooke relaxed, reassured.

“Do you want to go down to breakfast together tomorrow? Say 7.30?” Brooke asked, already excited at the prospect of seeing Vanessa again. A mischievous smile spread across Vanessa’s face. 

“Date number two, an’ I was worried about bein’ forward,” she smirked, Brooke being unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes before laughing. 

“It’s not a...shut up,” she smiled, rubbing her thumb over Vanessa’s knuckles to underline the fact she didn’t mean it. “I’ll get you downstairs at half 7. Sleep well.”

With that, Brooke squeezed Vanessa’s hand, gave her one final kiss, and watched as the other girl gave her a little wave as she disappeared behind her hotel room door. 

Turning to walk back to her own room and feeling as if she wasn’t quite living in reality after the events of the past few hours, Brooke realised that she had completely forgotten to check her phone. Pulling it out, she had a missed call from Jackie, a missed call from Jan, and a collection of texts from the latter too. 

_J: Where have u gone????? Jackie just threw up into a pint glass but don’t think anybody noticed xo_

_J: BrookeLYnnnnnnnn?????????_

_J: Come on you can’t leave me to look after drunk Jackie on my own_

_J: Girl WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO YOU_

Brooke smiled affectionately then decided to keep her friend guessing for a little while longer. 

_B: Tell you tomorrow. It’s been an interesting night x_

***

The next day, Brooke woke up just as happy as she had been when she’d gone to sleep. There had been that split-second when she awoke where she’d forgotten everything in her tired disorientation, and the adrenaline rush she’d felt when everything came back to her was akin to that of being on a rollercoaster. Vanessa liked her just as much as she liked Vanessa, and that was all the information she needed to be this happy. She turned over in bed and checked her phone, her heart thudding at the thought of texting Vanessa crossed with the nerves of coming off too keen- but, as she checked her notifications, she was pleased to find a text from the other girl there already. 

_V: still on for half 7? x_

Brooke smiled as she texted back confirming that she’d see her downstairs. She shot out of bed in excitement, showering quickly and neglecting to wash her hair. It was still lightly curled from last night and it wasn’t as if they were returning to the office today. She thought through her outfit a little more today before settling on a slouchy white t-shirt tucked into a denim skirt. There wouldn’t be many suits on display this particular morning. She did her makeup as quickly as she could, foregoing eyeshadow and settling on two haphazard swipes of eyeliner instead. Grabbing her key card, Brooke dashed down the hallway and into the lift, almost ashamed of the way her heart rattled against her ribcage as she thought about seeing Vanessa. In the back of her mind she had a niggling worry in case she had somehow decided overnight that everything was a big mistake, that she wanted to go back to being friends like they were before. When she arrived at the entrance to the restaurant, however, she needn’t have worried- Vanessa was sitting at a table in the middle of the others looking absolutely beautiful, and as soon as Brooke began to make her way towards her she flashed her the most beaming smile. 

“G’morning,” she greeted her, as Brooke sat down opposite her. “Sleep well?”

“Like a baby on Nytol,” Brooke smiled back cheerfully, earning her a snort from Vanessa.

“What a beautiful turn of phrase.”

“How about you?” Brooke asked. She didn’t think it was possible to be this genuinely interested in someone before- to ask someone how they slept and really wanting them to have slept well, to ask someone how they are and genuinely wanting them to be happy. 

“Oh, I slept great. I think it had something to do with an total ten telling me that she had feelings for me, but who knows,” Vanessa flirted, Brooke giving her a small kick under the table. 

“Stop that. You know I’m a twelve at least.”

“An’ she’s so humble too,” Vanessa raised her eyebrows challengingly, and for perhaps the eightieth time since telling Vanessa how she felt about her Brooke thanked God that it had all worked out for the better. Casting an eye over the restaurant and enjoying a companionable silence with Vanessa, Brooke noticed Sasha and Shea eating together in a quieter section of the restaurant, hidden amongst hungover politicians and cabinet ministers. A thought crossed Brooke’s mind, something she just hadn’t worried about until now. 

“‘Ness,” she began, the worry slowly settling into her stomach. “How are we gonna tell people?”

Vanessa lifted up her cup of tea. “What do you mean?”

“Well, like...obviously we both work together-”

“Really?! No way, I thought I’d seen you around before.”

“Fuck off. At some point people are going to guess what’s up. And I don’t...as stupid and intense as it sounds, I don’t want to fuck this up.”

Vanessa tilted her head and gave Brooke a sweet smile. “Aww. You’re cute.”

Brooke tried her best not to blush but from the prickling at her cheeks she could tell she’d failed. “My point is like...if we tell everyone and it doesn’t work out then...then what?”

Vanessa grimaced then looked to the floor. “Well I guess I’ve solved this particular problem already.”

Brooke looked at her curiously. “How come?”

“I might...have already texted Jan about it last night.”

A pause. “An’ Scarlet and Yvie. An’ Adore and Jaida, an’ Akeria and Silky.” 

Brooke looked to the ceiling and couldn’t help but laugh. Vanessa wasn’t wrong, she certainly had made the decision for them. 

“Sorry! I was just so fuckin’ excited, and they had all wanted something to happen between us as well-”

“Oh god. How much money does Yvie have riding on us getting together over the weekend?”

“If I say that there’s an office sweepstake, would you be mad?” 

Brooke put her head in her hands and groaned, which turned into a laugh. “Fuck. No, I’m not mad. How could I be mad? No, just as long as Bianca doesn’t find out I guess.”

Vanessa narrowed her eyes at Brooke. “Why?”

Brooke blinked. “I mean, she just doesn’t seem like the type of person who’d have much time for workplace relationships.”

“She ain’t ever had an issue with Scarlet and Yvie.”

“They work for the civil service, though. Not the actual government. I just feel like she’d really frown upon it, you know?”

Vanessa shrugged. Despite herself, Brooke couldn’t bring herself to tell Vanessa what she really thought- that Bianca might look unfavourably on Brooke if she knew she was dating a colleague and kick her out of the running for the job at Number 10. This, of course, would be wildly offensive to Vanessa, so a guilty Brooke decided that a lie was probably easier. 

“It’ll be easy to keep from Bianca. Honestly, 'Ness, I just don’t want her knowing.”

“Fine! We won’t mention anything to her,” she threw her hands up dismissively, taking another sip of her tea. “I mean it’s not like one of us is fuckin’ Jackie or anything.”

Brooke suddenly choked on her own saliva. Startled, Vanessa handed her her tea, which Brooke took a grateful sip of. The unexpectedness of Vanessa being so close to the mark had taken her by surprise. 

“Speaking of Jackie...like, do we tell her?” Vanessa asked, her face frowning with worry. “I mean, you don’t think she’d be the same as Bianca, do you?”

Brooke frowned and shook her head. “Nah. She’ll be fine. She probably already knows.”

The moment it was out of her mouth, Brooke realised what she’d said. Of course Jan would’ve told Jackie already, but Vanessa wouldn’t know that. 

“Why?” Vanessa asked, her face curious.

“Well, let’s see 'Ness, you told five people that Jackie works closely with that we’re a thing now. What do you think might happen?” Brooke smiled gently at her, hoping it would cover up the real meaning behind her flippant comment. Luckily it worked, and Vanessa seemed suitably embarrassed. 

“Okay, bitch, that’s fair,” she smiled at her from underneath her lashes. So, what are you doing once we get back to London anyway?”

“Ugh, probably writing a press release for Monday about the weekend and trying to get Jackie’s approval ratings up a bit more. What about you?” Brooke asked, sitting back briefly to accept some coffee offered by a passing waitress. Vanessa was smiling at her in a slightly amused way that Brooke couldn’t quite figure out.

“I’m going for lunch with Adore an’ Yvie,” Vanessa said, then laughed softly and paused. “D’you ever stop working?” 

“I need something to distract me from my life, don’t I?” Brooke smirked, sipping from her cup. Vanessa raised an eyebrow. 

“And there was me thinking that work was your life.”

The remark took Brooke by surprise- a little more brutal and cutting than she’d normally have expected from Vanessa, and she didn’t know whether to be proud or taken aback. Vanessa seemed to have picked up on the way her tone was received, and backtracked. 

“Sorry. That came out way harsher than I meant it. I just meant that you’re a really dedicated person. And to be honest...it’s nice that you care about me. For a while I thought that work was the only thing you cared about.” 

Brooke smiled fondly at the girl across the table from her, happy with the clarification. She wanted to tell her just how much she cared about her, but words didn’t seem to be sufficient. Instead she reached across the table to take Vanessa’s hand, Vanessa giving it a small squeeze before looking over Brooke’s shoulder and giving a long-suffering grin. Before Brooke could fully turn around she was crushed in a hug by who she could recognise as Jan from her perfume. The small blonde was emitting a sort of stifled scream as she held Brooke in a vice-like grip. As she finally let go of her, Jan slid into the seat next to Brooke with a thud, fixing her with a manic smile and wrenching her hands out of Vanessa’s so she could grip them in her own. 

“YOU-” Jan began, hastily quieting her voice as she drew the attention of various of their fellow diners. “You bitch! You finally did it!”

“I mean contrary to how you’re reacting I only told Vanessa how I felt about her. I didn’t cure the world of cancer,” Brooke brushed her off, a little embarrassed. 

“ONLY?! Only, she says, as if it’s the most casual thing in the world and not something she’s been building up to for MONTHS.”

“Jan!” Brooke cringed, her face becoming hot as she tried not to look Vanessa in the eyes, ashamed of how long she’d liked the other girl without doing anything about it. Vanessa, for her part, wore a shit-eating grin on her face. 

“Months? Damn, we finally found something Brooke Lynn’s afraid of. Feelings,” she teased, Jan tipping her head back to laugh beside her. 

“I wasn’t afraid! I was just waiting for the right time,” Brooke lied, shifting a fork slightly to the left. Jan gave her an incredulous look but decided to say nothing, opting instead for more gushing.

“Oh my God guys. Seriously. I am so fucking happy. This is the best thing ever.”

“What’s the best thing ever?” came a voice from beside the table, as Jackie came into view and took the remaining seat at the table beside Vanessa. 

“Vanessa and Brooke are girlfriends!” Jan squealed, in a completely, definitely, one hundred percent unrehearsed way. For her part, Jackie acted as surprised as Brooke knew she could manage at 7.45am. 

“Well, that’s cute! Congratulations. Although I hope it’s not going to be one of those disgustingly PDA workplace relationships, the NHS already has enough strain on its resources without me being admitted for the vomiting bug every 48 hours.”

“Ha ha,” Brooke rolled her eyes at her, wanting desperately to make a quip about how Jackie wished she and Jan could be one of those PDA workplace relationships. “Anyway we’re not...we’re just seeing how it goes. We’re not girlfriends. I mean, officially. Yet. Or we might never be, which is fine. But also if we are, then that’s good too.”

Brooke watched as the three girls around her laughed at her, as she dug a bigger and bigger hole for herself. Sighing in exasperation, she addressed Vanessa directly. “See, this is why I didn’t want to tell work people.”

Only a little bit ashamed, Vanessa stifled a laugh and looked down at her tea. 

“Wait, you weren’t going to tell us?” Jan asked, turning to Brooke with a look of offence. Brooke immediately fixed her with a glare, wishing momentarily that Vanessa wasn’t there so that she could remind Jan exactly how she found out about her and Jackie. 

“Well sometimes, Jan, some things are better kept under wraps. You know?” she said through gritted teeth, Jan suddenly getting what Brooke was implying and piping down. Jackie, keen to move the subject on from her and Jan’s secret relationship, brightened up and sat up a little, which was her little way of telling the girls she had good news. 

“Well, see, I thought the best thing ever was the party officially backing my refugee housing scheme.”

Brooke turned to her excitedly. This _was_ good news. “Wait, what? How do you know?”

“Oh, I bumped into Trinity Taylor this morning. She was hungover to all hell, but still was able to have quite an intelligible conversation. She liked the pitch and so did Pinky and The Brain over there,” Jackie smirked, casting a glance to Sasha and Shea’s table. “Apparently Sasha still doesn’t really think we have the money for it and Shea is wildly skeptical of the building timeframe, but they’re willing to back the concept and they’ve got that much influence within the party that the rest of them are coming round to the idea too.”

Vanessa exploded in a small burst of clapping, her face bright and reminding Brooke exactly why she liked her so much. “Jackie that’s amazing! I knew you’d kill it. Now they all love you just as much as we do!”

As Brooke smiled silently in agreement, she watched as a look passed between Jackie and Jan. Well. Almost as much. 

Pushing her chair back, Brooke smoothed down her skirt as she stood up. “Well, I’m off to get a celebratory bowl of Coco Pops. Can I get anyone anything?”

The rest of the day passed without much incident- it was an ordinary day, yet all the while tinged with the extraordinary- checking out of the hotel with Vanessa’s arm wrapped around her waist, the four hour drive back to London with Vanessa’s head on her shoulder, saying goodbye to Vanessa with a squeeze and another actual kiss, texting with her for the rest of the day. Brooke was distracted from her work, but for once it wasn’t the sort of heart-aching, hollow, gut-wrenching distraction of not knowing whether Vanessa would ever like her back. It was the lightheaded, butterfly-stomached, dizzy and ever so slightly nauseous distraction, knowing that the person she felt so deeply for felt all the same feelings she did and wanting to speed time up so that they could be together again but wanting to slow time down so that she could savour every single second of being this exact level of happy, uncertain that it would ever be achieved again. 

After she’d done the bare minimum of the work she’d wanted to do, Brooke found herself with the motivation to clean her flat, something which she hadn’t possessed for a little while. Sitting on her bed with tidiness surrounding her she lay back against the pillows, just basking in the fact that she was happy. The nice weather helped- the clocks were not long about to go forward and there was a balmy sunset hanging in the sky, the light of which was creeping through Brooke’s window. Buoyed by her good mood she felt to her left on her bedside table and picked up her phone. Before she could really think about it, she was calling Vanessa. 

As soon as the other girl picked up, Brooke was consumed with nerves. She’d come across too eager- texting Vanessa all day and now phoning her- but it was too late as she heard Vanessa’s voice sing-song down the line. 

“Hello?”

“Hey. Sorry, are you busy?” Brooke asked, already apologetic and regretful even though Vanessa sounded happy to talk. 

“Nah, I’m just walking back from lunch with the girls. I can talk. I can always talk to you.”

Brooke checked the clock and laughed. “It’s six o’clock, how long was your lunch?”

“Well we moved to the cocktail place off Carnaby Street and before we knew it the sun was goin’ down. I’m happy you called to be honest. Nice to have someone to talk to on my way home.”

Brooke thought she was so happy that her heart would burst. “You know you can always talk to me.”

A smile appeared in Vanessa’s voice. “I know. So what d’you want to talk about?” 

Brooke felt like an idiot again. “Um...whatever you want really. I just wanted to talk. To you.”

A slightly tipsy laugh from Vanessa. “I can’t believe I spent so long thinkin’ you were a stone cold bitch and you might actually be the cutest person I’ve ever met?”

Brooke blushed so hard she felt like Vanessa would be able to feel it through the phone. “Shh. So how were Yvie and Adore anyway?”

“Ugh, ridiculously happy. Like, out-of-proportion levels. Anyone would think I was pregnant or some shit. Adore had ordered prosecco and popped it when I came in. They were demandin’ to know every detail. Yvie said she knew all along of course, but she loves to think she’s some sort of psychic.”

“Hey, put her in a pub on Walford Road on a Friday night and she could really rake in some money.”

A soft laugh came down the phone. “Maybe she could do it on the side. World’s shittest Hannah Montana. Although all the time we were talkin’ I was conscious of rubbing anything in Adore’s face, because you know she’s still hung up on that Laila?”

Brooke gave a monumental roll of her eyes. “Christ, what the hell did she see in that girl? She has purple hair, for God’s sake.”

“I know.”

“I mean, she’d have been fine though, 'Ness. She’s our friend, she’s happy for us!”

Vanessa gave a soft chuckle again. “Us. That sounds nice.”

Brooke threw her head back onto the pillow. “And there was you thinking I was the cutest person ever.”

Maybe she was just being self-indulgent, but she could imagine that Vanessa was blushing over the phone. “Listen, I’ve just got to the Tube so I’m gonna have to hang up on you. But I’ll let you know when I’m home safe, okay? If...if you want to know?”

“No, of course I do. Well, I’ll let you go then,” Brooke shrugged, already disappointed that she’d no longer be able to hear Vanessa’s voice. 

“Okay. Bye.”

“Wait, Vanessa!” Brooke suddenly interjected, wanting desperately to add something else but unsure of what it should be. 

“Yes?”

“...I don’t know,” Brooke said, instantly sounding ridiculous. Pre-empting Vanessa’s laughter, she jumped in again. “I just...I feel like there should be something else.”

Vanessa laughed, but not as uproariously as Brooke had expected. “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” Brooke sighed, turning over on her bed and looking up at the sky. “Hey, is the sky like...orange where you are?” 

“Yeah. It’s beautiful.”

“Orange and pink,” Brooke said a little wistfully, before tuning back into the conversation. “I just...I’m really glad I’ve got you.”

The smile was back in Vanessa’s voice. “Well I’m glad I got you too.”

There was a moment where Brooke was just smiling to herself on the phone. Vanessa spoke again, a hint of teasing to her voice. “Maybe _I’m glad I got you_ will be our _always_.”

Brooke burst out laughing. “Oh, shut up! Right. Message me when you’re home safe.”

“I will. See you, B.”

With that the phone was hung up, and Brooke felt that her heart would never stop beating at exactly the speed it was now. 

***

Despite how magical Sunday had seemed, it was still a Sunday, and when the sun rose again Brooke’s alarm sprung into action blaring the small tune she heard so often she now felt it could trigger her to homicide. The weekend had been amazing but exhausting, and Brooke was feeling the effects of not having had a lie in over the past two days. As she dragged herself through her morning routine and started the journey to work, the prospect of seeing Vanessa when she arrived at the department added a little more excitement to her day. 

As Brooke got off the tube and began to walk towards the department, her phone vibrated in her pocket. Checking it and noticing it was Vanessa she involuntarily smiled, but her face fell as she checked the content of the message. 

_V: DON’T freak out when you get to the office. I tried to make them take it down but they think it’s funny_

Completely confused, Brooke doubled her pace, her heart sinking as she entered the lift and climbed higher and higher up the building to the department. As the lift doors opened she was met with a panic-stricken Vanessa, who instantly threw her hands out apologetically. 

“Before you go round there, I NEED you to know that I had no part in this whatsoever and they’re all just bein’ complete idiots,” Vanessa babbled as the two girls walked round and into the department together. Brooke was confused- nothing seemed off so far, there didn’t appear to be anything to give away the fact that something was going on. 

“'Ness it’s-”

“And I damn well told them! I said, guys, this is the most childish thing I have ever born witness to and I refuse to be a part of it! I mean what if Bianca turns up?! I just-”

“Vanessa!” Brooke interjected, as they turned the corner into Dosac and Brooke found the department completely in darkness, with no sign of anyone else having turned up for work that day. Completely at a loss as to what was happening, she turned to Vanessa. “What’s actually going on?”

With that, a great many things happened at once. The lights came on to reveal everyone springing up from behind desks, shelves and filing cabinets. There was a great cry of “SURPRISE!” as a completely astounded Brooke and an unimpressed Vanessa were showered with party poppers. Brooke took in the scene in front of her- a proud Yvie stood in front of her desk which was devoid of any work and now held a massive chocolate cake with a shakily-iced “Congratulations!” on top, cupcakes with vaginas on them, bowls full of what appeared to be dick-shaped marshmallows, prosecco, party hats and more party poppers. The most difficult thing to miss was the gigantic homemade banner that hung across the office which read “SO YOU’VE FINALLY FUCKED”.

Lost for words, Brooke gave a choked laugh when she saw the rest of the girls in the department, and spluttered when she saw Jackie standing beside a potted plant. She couldn’t help but laugh at least a little, the whole thing was so ridiculous; her actual boss, a cabinet minister, standing underneath a banner to celebrate the non-existent sexual contact between her and the girl she was currently seeing. The only way it could get any weirder was if Bianca appeared wearing a fez and waving a Piñata.

“I’m glad you see the funny side,” Vanessa sniffed, indignant that Brooke was taking it so well. Brooke turned to her and fixed her with a sympathetic glance before slipping her arm around her shoulders and giving her a quick squeeze. 

“Aw, come on 'Ness. If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. For the record we haven’t even done anything, you idiots.” 

Yvie burst out laughing, doubling over before addressing the pair. “Sorry! Sorry, ladies. This was all totally my idea. You have to admit though it’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Yes, if you’re twelve years old perhaps,” Nina spoke up dryly from her own seat, from which she hadn’t moved and had watched all of the proceedings with a single raised eyebrow. 

“Let’s be real Nina, it’s fucking funny!” Adore smiled, trying to bring the head of comms around. 

“No it is not! People’s private life is private unless they decide to tell you, for God’s sake. It’s the workplace!”

“Completely agree, Nina. The whole thing is disgusting, barbaric! They should be hung from the cross! Right-” Jackie said dryly, grabbing a labia cake from Yvie’s desk. “-meeting room in ten, ladies, yes?”

There was a mutter of agreement from the girls affected and the crowd dispersed, as a phone started to ring and the ladies were reminded that they had to actually work today. 

“I’d better print that press release out. Hey, you okay?” Brooke turned to Vanessa, who still looked irked.

“I’m just a lil’ pissed off at them. Like we haven’t even...done anythin’ yet, and it’s just fuckin’ awkward when they do shit like this, you know?” she sighed, looking at the comms girls who were busy passing round the bowl of penis marshmallows. Brooke tilted her head, a little taken aback by how much Vanessa seemed to care.

“Hey, it’s alright,” she soothed, placing a gentle hand on Vanessa’s shoulder. “This won’t affect anything. As long as we’re both on the same page then everything’s fine. Okay?”

Vanessa smiled at her, then looked to the ground. “You’re the best. You’re right, I shouldn’t have told these assholes anything.”

Brooke snorted as Vanessa brought a hand up to cup her jaw. “They are assholes, but they’re also our friends.”

“Unfortunately,” Vanessa smiled, giving Brooke a quick kiss on the nose. “Print off your shit. I’ll see you in the meeting room.”

With that, she made her way over to Jan’s desk, Brooke’s heart thudding as she watched her leave and thinking again just how lucky she was. 

Sure enough, ten minutes later they were back to the usual: Jackie at the head of the long, grey-white table that sat in the meeting room, Jan at the chair nearest to her left, Nina to her right, and Vanessa and Brooke sat opposite each other further down. She’d wanted to sit next to Vanessa and hold her hand but Jackie had been right- if they were to turn into a disgusting workplace couple Brooke would never forgive herself, and instead settled on looking at Vanessa adoringly from across the table.

“I’m wanting to capitalise on my success from the weekend and really push this policy while it’s hot. So, what have you all got for me, my pretties?” Jackie asked, first turning to face Brooke.

“Well, Wicked Witch of Westminster,” Brooke began, earning a soft laugh from the others at the table and an unimpressed smirk from Jackie. “I drafted us a press release last night because I knew Nina wouldn’t be on it until today. So we can release that this morning.”

Nina had turned full circle in her chair and was looking at Brooke as if she’d sprouted a second head. “Excuse me! That is so rude, just assuming I wouldn’t be working over the weekend.”

“And were you?” Brooke cocked her head, already knowing the answer.

“...No. My dog had agility trials.” 

Brooke looked at Vanessa across the table, who spluttered a laugh. 

“Okay, so can we release that within the hour?” Jackie turned to Nina. 

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” she replied, flipping open her notebook and writing something down.

“Vanessa, what’ve you got?” 

“Barratt Homes have been in contact lookin’ to partner up for the policy. They’ve given us prices and honestly, they’re pretty good. It would put us under budget overall. I think they just want a large amount of exposure under a good light after the PFI fuck up last year, and we can definitely give that to ‘em.” 

“Amazing! Jan?”

“I contacted Blu to follow up on what we spoke about back in January at the conference-”

“Wait, who’s Blu?” Brooke interjected.

“Irish Jackie. She’s the country’s Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment- what we would call Social Affairs and Citizenship,” Jan explained helpfully. “Anyway, I spoke to her and she’s going ahead with trying to implement your policy over there. Not too shabby.”

“That is...very not too shabby! Well done,” Jackie smiled, a soft look passing between the two that Brooke recognised all too well. Jackie finally turned to the head of communications. “Nina! Bonus ball!”

“Well, good news! I managed to get your launch date moved.”

Jackie’s face lit up. “Nina, you star! To when?”

“April 3rd.”

As quickly as it had brightened up, Jackie’s face fell. “The previous date was April 5th.”

“Yes, and I got it brought forward! This is good news, yes? This is what you wanted!”

“I wanted it brought forward by a couple of weeks, not a couple of days! Ugh,” Jackie sighed, slumping in her chair. “Sorry, Nina. Your efforts are appreciated. That goes for all of you, I’m very impressed with what you’ve all managed to do within such a short space of time. You’re diamonds.” 

Happy, Vanessa leant back in her chair and beamed across the table at Brooke. Brooke’s heart was warmed, unable to help herself smiling back. Satisfied, Jackie spoke again. 

“So the next thing I want us to do is-”

“SHIT!” Vanessa exclaimed, looking down at her phone and shooting up from her seat. “Bianca’s in the building.”

Brooke looked out from the meeting room. A cold fear crept over her as she saw the banner still hanging up and all the decorations still on display. With complete disregard for the meeting, all five of the ladies ran out and yelled various directions at the unsuspecting, shocked comms team. Jan thought quickly and tore the banner down, stuffing it in the small bin beside her desk. Brooke flailed at her, not quite able to communicate things that made any sense in her panic. 

“Not there, she’ll see there! Desk drawer,” she babbled, wrenching open her desk drawer and taking the crumpled up banner from the bin, stuffing it inside the already very full space. Following her lead, Scarlet grabbed the as yet unopened bottle of fizz and stuck it in her own desk drawer, just as Bianca rounded the corner. Brooke looked at Vanessa, her heart stopping. They’d managed to conceal the most incriminating of evidence, but both the cakes, the streamers and hats, and the dick marshmallows still sat on Yvie’s desk. She watched as Bianca took in her surroundings, her face steely and unchanging.

“Good morning,” she said slowly. Turning to Jackie, she screwed up her face in confusion. “What...the fuck is going on?”

“Oh! It’s um. It’s Yvie’s birthday,” she smiled faux-placidly, gesturing to the unsuspecting girl who suddenly turned to Bianca, a wide smile concealing her obvious fright. 

“Well happy birthday, Yvie. Or should I say…” Bianca’s eyes narrowed as she scrutinised the icing on the big cake. “...congratulations?”

“It was the only cake left in the shop! They were fresh out of birthday ones. Still good, though,” Scarlet explained quickly, smiling up at Bianca. Her eyes then widened in horror as she noticed two remaining cupcakes detailing the female reproductive system on Yvie’s desk. Following her gaze, Bianca turned her nose up as she picked up one of the cupcakes and held it up wordlessly. 

“Yeah, those were the only cupcakes left too,” Yvie reeled off as she picked up the bowl of dick marshmallows. “And marshmallows.”

Bianca blinked silently at the bowl of incriminating confectionary. “And where the hell were you shopping for this shit? Ann Summers?”

“Was, um. Was there something you wanted to see us about, Bianca?” Jackie asked, smiling politely. Shaking her head as if to chase away the interactions she’d just been part of, Bianca stepped forward and walked past comms. 

“Um, two things. First of all, congratulations on your policy speech at the weekend, very impressive, very good.”

“High praise,” Jackie smiled wryly at her boss, who glared back. 

“Hey, that is very fucking high praise from me today, alright? I’ve just had to tear Sasha Velour a new asshole for that shambles of a speech she shat out at the weekend.”

“Aw, I hope you weren’t too hard on her. She likes my policy and we could do with all my party allies very much alive.”

“Well she is, barely. That brings me to the second thing I was here for- I’ve got you a meeting with Latrice. One-thirty. To discuss the housing scheme and the new communities. It only seems fair that you link up with Communities and Local Government on this.”

Jackie shrugged. “Sounds fine. Is it like a lunch meeting thing?”

Bianca let out a laugh. “Oh, Christ no. She’d have arranged it at Hot Flame world buffet and it would’ve gone on until about seven at night. No, just at Richmond Terrace.”

“Sweet.”

“Bianca,” Brooke interrupted suddenly, remembering a sourer note to their weekend away. “Have Scotland Yard managed to come up with anything on the...you know. What they were investigating.”

Bianca nodded, lowering her voice as she understood what Brooke was talking about. Brooke had been scared to even utter the words out loud, not just in case the comms girls heard, but also because the thought of even mentioning it or speaking it into existence was enough to make her feel slightly sick.

“They traced the original call to a phone box near St James’ Park. They’ve got CCTV but the council haven’t had people maintaining the foliage there for months, so the camera that could have given us a lead was covered by fucking leaves. As for the hotel business, the staff said the letter had come in with the rest of the mail. So it was a shock tactic- whoever had threatened you wasn’t in the audience when you made your speech.”

“Oh, fantastic. That’s peachy, it’s good to know I wouldn’t have died that day,” Jackie snapped, her anxiety having increased noticeably. Bianca glared at her as if she was about to scold her, then clearly thought better of it.

“There’s a case, and people are working on it. Right now they’re investigating Royal Mail- they think whoever it was either intercepted there or works there. But for the moment, just try to stay calm. I know that’s easier said than done.”

“No, it’s fine,” Jackie sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. “I’m just going to put all my energy into this policy launch. I mean that’s all I really can do, right?”

Bianca nodded, happy that everything was settled. Turning to a nearby Vanessa, she continued. “Vanessa, can I go over these stats with you before I brief Latrice?”

“Of course,” Vanessa said, eyes widening a little in surprise. Dutifully she walked back to her desk with Bianca. Now, only Jan, Jackie and Brooke remained. 

“You two. Back in the meeting room. There’s still another item I wanted to speak about.”

Confused, Brooke followed the two girls into the room. Something told her there was no need to get Nina. Jackie sat down in the seat she had been sitting in before, her body language relaxing as Jan closed the door then sat next to her and slipped her hand into her own. Brooke smirked at the couple and how they acted when they didn’t have their guard up all the time.

“Okay, what’s this about then? Do you want me to help choose colour schemes for your wedding or organise your baby shower or whatever?” she chuckled, sitting down and slumping into a chair. She tensed a little as she realised that both Jackie and Jan’s faces were grave.

“We want to go public.”

Brooke froze. Her heart felt as if it had completely stopped. “No. Fuck no. Why would you want to do that?”

Jan narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know Brooke, maybe the fact that for the past six months we’ve had to live out our relationship as if we’re living in Anne Frank’s fucking attic?”

Brooke blinked. “That’s um. Quite the comparison.”

“Okay, inappropriate, yes. The point is...we can’t even be a proper couple,” Jan tore a hand through her hair, frustration seeping out of every pore. 

“Seeing you and Vanessa...we’re happy for you, of course we are. But it’s just painting such a broad picture of the things you both can do that we can’t, and it’s really...it’s upsetting.” Jackie sighed, rubbing her brow. 

“It’s putting a strain on us, Brooke. We just want to be a normal couple.”

Brooke exhaled noisily. “Well you should have thought about that before you got yourself into this mess. I’m sorry Jackie, but if you start going public now all this will do is completely detract from your policy launch. What do you think the media are going to prefer? _Ooh, Jackie Cox has just launched a refugee housing scheme?_ Or _Ooh, Jackie Cox has been having a sordid six month long affair with one of her policy advisors, rendering every piece of policy completely unvetted_!”

“Fuck off,” Jan bristled. “They wouldn’t react like that.”

“Oh, take your head out the clouds, Jan! You’re actually telling me that the media wouldn’t be interested in this?”

The two girls opposite Brooke fell silent, both of their eyes on the floor.

“Jackie, I’m your advisor. This is my advice. Do not go public with this,” Brooke said firmly, trying her best to make her voice as soft as possible. She could see how upset her friends were but she could already see how catastrophic it would be if things got out, and all the good work they’d done would be up in smoke. 

Jan looked up at Brooke, tears in her eyes. “What about Vanessa? Can we at least tell Vanessa?”

“Babe…” Jackie sighed, bringing a discreet arm around her girlfriend’s waist. “You heard Brooke. It’s not a good idea. I love Vanessa, obviously, but if we tell another person then that’s two people that know, and two people become three, and three become four, and-”

“Yes, alright Jackie, I know how the hell maths works!” Jan snapped, tears rolling down her cheeks. Brooke went to speak but found her voice catching in her throat. She had always thought things between the two were so happy- at least, that was how they both always seemed, so close together and content. Now she realised the immense weight that was obviously being put on their relationship. Simple things that her and Vanessa were already doing- holding hands, quick hugs, little affectionate kisses- she realised that Jackie and Jan had never been able to do if they weren’t in the safety of their own flats. They probably had never really been able to go on a proper date before. Against her better judgement, Brooke’s heart went out to them. 

“Look, I’m sorry. I know it must be hard,” Brooke spoke softly, as Jackie looked at her with pain in her eyes. “But one of us has to keep a sensible head in this situation. You both knew what you were getting into when you started this relationship. Until Jackie’s out of office, or unless Jan gets fired or some shit, you’re not able to go public.”

Jan tilted her head up to look at Brooke. Brooke frowned. “Jan. Don’t get yourself fired.”

“Of course I won’t,” she shook her head, irritated and tired. “I just...speaking to Vanessa this morning. She’s so happy and likes you and just loves to talk about you and...I want to do that, you know? I would talk about how much I love this girl all day if I could. I would shout it from the damn rooftops.”

Brooke jarred a little, having no idea that the L word had been mentioned before, but from the calm way that Jackie reacted and from the fact they had been together as long as they had meant it wasn’t really much of a surprise. Her face softened as she looked at her friend. “Well that’s very nice. But you need to be realistic.”

Suddenly, an idea dawned on Brooke. 

“Actually. Hang on. That’s not actually a bad idea,” she said, her brow furrowing as she thought more about her idea. “Meet me at the fire escape in five minutes.”

And that was how, at ten o’clock on a Monday morning, Cabinet Minister Jackie Cox and her political advisor girlfriend stood on the roof of a governmental building, shouting their lungs into the wind about how much they loved each other, while Brooke looked on. She knew this was only a temporary fix- it was a brief moment of silly happiness and a break from the strain their relationship was clearly under, but as Brooke watched Jackie wrap her arms around Jan and softly kiss her cheek as the city of London panned out below them, she was glad that she’d provided them with this small moment of respite from whatever it was that they were going through.

***

“What are you doing on Saturday?” 

Brooke watched nervously as Vanessa looked up from her monitor, confusion painted all over her face then happiness as she saw who was addressing her. 

“Um. Skyping my Mama, but that takes like, an hour. How come?” she asked, Brooke noting the hopefulness in her voice.

“Well, I would love to take you on a date,” she said, maintaining eye contact and watching as Vanessa’s eyes lit up. “If you want to go.”

Vanessa tried to hide a smile in that way she had where Brooke knew something cheeky was coming. “Not Pizza Express?”

Brooke shook her head and gave a soft laugh. “What the hell is wrong with Pizza Express?! No. It’s not Pizza Express. It’s a surprise, actually.”

“Ooh,” Vanessa’s eyes sparkled and Brooke had to stop herself from blushing, suddenly embarrassed at the effort she’d put into the day. “I mean, yes. Obviously it’s a yes. Even if it had been Pizza Express again, it would’ve been a yes.”

“Salad Express,” Brooke teased, sticking her tongue out and then smiling as the other girl smiled back at her. “Okay. I’ll get you at your flat at like...one?”

“Sounds good,” Vanessa said, her tone all excited and happy and making Brooke’s heart flip over.

As Brooke walked back to her desk, she reflected on her week. Arranging for her two friends to go up and scream declarations of love off the roof of the building had apparently been the cutest idea ever according to Jan, who had asked Brooke what she was going to do for Vanessa for their first date. Brooke had explained that they had already been on it.

“Brooke,” Jan had drawled, raising an eyebrow. “One course at a chain restaurant is not a first date for someone that’s liked another someone for a span of nine months. It needs to be special. What you just did for me and Jackie was special. Do that.”

“What, do exactly that?”

“No! Just...make it unique and nice and memorable. Something she won’t forget. Something she’ll appreciate.”

The days had gone by, and Brooke had racked her brains. It hadn’t helped that work had been a little intense and she hadn’t really had a chance to properly spend time with Vanessa. In fact she was beginning to become afraid that Vanessa would lose interest in her, which was why one day at lunch Brooke joined the comms team again to interrogate them about first date ideas. 

“What did you two do for yours?” Brooke had asked Scarlet and Yvie, who were eating identical packed lunches. 

“Fucked in the toilets at Ronnie Scott’s,” Scarlet replied instantly. 

“I know that a lot of the things we say are jokes. That one isn’t,” Yvie replied, her tone completely serious and making Brooke regret ever asking.

“Nina, what sort of first date would you appreciate?” Brooke turned to someone else, hopeful for a good answer. 

“Blanket. Cup of tea. Sofa. Chocolate eclairs. And the Inspector Morse box set,” Nina contemplatively replied, pausing and then adding, “And that, kids, is how you know you’ve been married for too goddamn long. Because that is literally the best I can come up with.”

Brooke sighed and then looked across the table. 

“Jaida, what about you?”

Adore frowned and threw a chip at Brooke. “Hey, bitch, you never asked me!”

“Your answer is going to be pizza, Adore, and that’s literally what I already did.”

Point taken, Adore shut her mouth and turned to Jaida, who was looking at the ceiling tiles wistfully. 

“Taken to a seafood restaurant. Or steak, I’m not fussy.”

“Not at all,” Scarlet interjected sarcastically.

“Lots of champagne. Or red wine- again, not fussy- then back to a really, really nice hotel room. And then sex. A lot of sex.”

Brooke had never been closer to literally flipping a table in her entire life. “For fuck’s sake, guys!”

“Wined, dined and sixty-nined!” Yvie screeched, the comms girls all roaring as Brooke sat staring at her lunch in complete regret. Nina noticed her hopelessness.

“Brooke,” she began, her voice low as if Vanessa was hiding in a nearby filing cabinet. “I may not have been on a first date in years, but if there’s one thing that would make it special, it would be something I’d always wanted to do but had never done.”

Brooke paused, intrigued. “Which is…?”

“Not literally something _I’ve_ never done!! Something Vanessa’s never done. Or something she’s always wanted to do. Any ideas?”

The table was silent for a minute. Brooke thought deeply. 

“London Zoo?”

Scarlet pulled a face. “I’m sure I heard V saying at some point that she doesn’t like zoos. She’s not a fan of animals in captivity.”

“So the aquarium’s fucked out the window too,” Brooke said matter-of-factly. “What about the Eye?”

Jaida laughed incredulously. “She’s a fucking Puerto Rican migrant, Brooke, what do you think the first thing she did when she came over here was?”

Brooke shrugged, then found herself deep in thought. Something that Jaida said set something in motion within her mind. After a minute, Brooke spoke. 

“Guys,” she began tentatively. “Vanessa spent Christmas on her own here, right?”

Yvie nodded sombrely. “She was gutted.”

The cogs turned even faster in Brooke’s head. “But what if she didn’t have to. What if she spent Christmas with me?”

Adore snorted a laugh. “What, you’re gonna invent a fucking time machine, that it?”

“No, idiot,” Brooke laughed, pushing the other girl hard. “But I’m going to do Christmas all over again. Just for Vanessa. She’s going to get the Christmas she deserved.”

The girls were all suddenly full of excited, albeit confused, energy.

“I don’t quite follow,” Nina said slowly. Brooke laughed.

“Okay. I’ll explain what I’m thinking. But I might need you guys to help.”

***

Brooke pressed a finger to Vanessa’s buzzer, her heart fluttering nervously as she waited for an answer. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Brooke.”

“I’ll be down in two seconds!”

Now even more nervous, Brooke stood back from the buzzer and looked down at what she had chosen to wear, wondering if it was special enough. She’d chosen black leggings with a slouchy, oversized jumper, the colour of which was somewhere in between red and orange. On her feet she’d chosen to wear trainers, but Brooke was now wondering if she should have gone for something a little fancier. She had no time to think about it all that much, though, as Vanessa suddenly appeared at the stairwell door. 

“Hi!” she smiled, clutching both hands a little nervously. Brooke took in her outfit- a soft pink jumper with touches of gold glitter threaded through it combined with a short, black skirt and black tights. Brooke was relieved to find that she had also gone for trainers, but was even more taken aback by how beautiful she could look in such a simple casual outfit. 

“Hi yourself,” Brooke smiled back. “You look amazing, by the way.”

Vanessa blushed. “Oh, thanks! It’s amazing what a girl can do with a New Look sale section and a pair of Gazelles.”

Brooke laughed, then remembered her plan and stuck her hand into her huge coat pocket to bring out a small envelope. “Oh, uh. This is for you.”

Bemused, Vanessa gave a nervous giggle, looking at Brooke curiously before she opened it. Brooke watched as she slid her finger underneath the seal and ripped the envelope open to reveal a Christmas card. Vanessa fixed Brooke with a confused look.

“Brooke Lynn, it’s March.”

“Just read it!” Brooke hurried her, becoming a little embarrassed. She watched as Vanessa opened the card and read the message that Brooke had written inside last night in her best handwriting;

_To Vanessa,_

_I realise that we’ve just started seeing each other, and I know I’m a little late, but I would love to spend Christmas with you if you’ll have me?_

_Love Brooke x_

She’d agonised for ages about whether to put “love” or “from”. In the end she’d settled on the former, but as she watched Vanessa read the card she became more and more regretful of her decision. What if she fucking hated the whole thing?

Vanessa looked up from the card and gave Brooke a funny look tinged with affection. “Brooke...what is this?”

Swallowing her nerves Brooke came to the conclusion that it was her surprise, and she needed to be in control of the situation and try her best to stop worrying. 

“Today, for one day only, it is the 25th of December all over again. Merry Christmas, 'Ness,” she smiled lazily, leaning forward and kissing her softly. Vanessa didn’t complain, gently reciprocating until the other girl pulled back. “Come on. We’ve got presents to buy.”

Utterly confused, Vanessa allowed herself to be tugged gently towards the road where her development met the Brixton streets, Brooke’s pulse racing with excitement that Vanessa had no idea what the day would bring.

***

After two different trains, they emerged from the tube exit into the bright but cold March sunshine. Brooke watched as Vanessa looked around her, gazing up at the Knightsbridge tube sign and squinting. 

“I got a feeling we ain’t in Kansas anymore, Toto,” she quipped, looking down the long road in front of her where the crowds bustled and buses spat their fumes into the air. “Okay, Miss Magical-Mystery-Tour. Where we goin’?”

“Harrods,” Brooke said quite simply, looking to the sky nonchalantly. “But on the way, just keep an eye on the lampposts.”

Vanessa laughed, threading her hand in Brooke’s as they began to walk down the street. “What the hell have you done?” 

Brooke just smiled secretively as they continued to make their way down the road. They were both quiet as they walked, filled with a sort of nervous anticipation. Brooke hid a laugh as she watched Vanessa, her eyes darting from one lamppost to the next expectantly. Finally, around halfway down the street, her eyes came to rest on one, then another, then another as she took the whole scene in.

“Brooke Lynn…”

“I told you, it’s Christmas! The 25th of December. Even the city knows it,” she smiled proudly, looking at the scene in front of her. Of course Adore and Yvie would be the only ones crazy enough to agree to stringing industrial-sized sets of fairy lights across the lampposts of Brompton Road, and to set up Christmas lights hanging from each one. The council would be furious and the girls would probably have landed in serious legal trouble, if Brooke hadn’t known for a fact that she had a serious bargaining chip in the form of the Mayor of London’s state-funded cocaine habit which she could use if necessary. Still, she considered as she watched Vanessa’s eyes sparkle, she probably would have been quite content with going to jail if it meant that she got to make Vanessa this happy.

“How did you even do this?!” Vanessa took Brooke’s other hand, gazing at her with a look that Brooke never wanted to stop receiving. 

“I have my contacts,” she smirked, basking in Vanessa’s overwhelming joy. Vanessa looked momentarily as if she was about to say something, then decided against it and continued walking. As they finally reached Harrods, Vanessa stopped abruptly and took in the busy street around them, her face growing disappointed. 

“It’s gonna be mobbed, you know that, right?” Vanessa frowned, looking at the bustling crowds. Brooke just raised both eyebrows and pointed to the door, watching as two tourists tried to enter only to find the shop closed. 

“Okay, you took me to a closed shop? I’m so confused,” Vanessa laughed slightly, the nervous laugh of someone who didn’t have a clue what was happening. Brooke took her hand again, tugging her forward to the entrance. Upon making eye contact with a sales lady, the door was hastily unlocked and opened. Vanessa’s mouth dropped open. 

“Miss Hytes, Miss Mateo,” the girl smiled, as the two stepped into the department store to find it completely empty. “Welcome to Harrods. We’re delighted to have you here today. Please, take your time.”

Smiling smugly, Brooke looked at Vanessa whose eyes were wide as she took in everything around her. The whole store was decorated exactly as it had been over the festive season- holly wreaths decked bannisters, baubles and golden bows hung from every display, and right in the centre of the store there was a giant Christmas tree, fully decorated in sparkling golds, reds and greens which reflected in Vanessa’s eyes like kaleidoscope. Jaida had delivered- it turns out she’d hooked up with the managing director of the store more than a couple of times, and apparently whatever kinky stuff she was into was enough to exchange for a couple of hours to Brooke and Vanessa’s selves in the famed department store.

Vanessa turned to Brooke, still unable to process anything. “I literally...don’t have any words.”

“You don’t need any,” Brooke shrugged, taking in her surroundings. “Now, it’s Christmas. And Christmas is all about presents. So...let’s go get you something.”

Vanessa gave a choked laugh, then lowered her voice. “Bold of you to assume I can afford anything in Harrods.”

“Well it would be a bit of a shit date if I made you come here to pay for things with your own money, wouldn’t it? I’m buying.”

Vanessa blinked at her twice, Brooke suddenly afraid that she’d made the poor girl have a small stroke. Shaking her head, Vanessa held her hands up, palms first. 

“No, there’s no way I can accept that, Brooke.”

“Yes you can. It’s your day, it’s your Christmas. I never got you a present anyway,” Brooke said softly but insistently, a twinge of regret panging at her that she hadn’t cared enough to get her friend a present. Vanessa’s eyes softened as she leant forward and kissed Brooke gently. 

“You are unreal,” she murmured as she pulled away. Brightening up a little, Vanessa took another look at the shop floor that lay in front of her. “Fuck it then, if you’re sure. Let’s get me a present!”

***

As the two girls finally made their way out of Harrods clutching huge amounts of bags in their arms, Brooke sighed happily. Vanessa had dashed about the store for roughly two hours, her face like a literal child at Christmas time as she added more stuff to her basket, every so often dashing back and replacing it with protestations about how Brooke couldn’t possibly pay for it but whatever it was going through the till in the end all the same. The girls had chatted as they shopped, often ignoring the things on offer around them and getting lost in conversation or just the general experience of being together. 

“That was just...incredible,” Vanessa sighed, looking at Brooke gratefully. “Thank you. You’re amazing.”

Brooke smiled and gave a light shrug. “Well, the day isn’t over.”

Vanessa was a little shocked. “It ain’t?!”

“No. There’s a lot more to Christmas than the presents, 'Ness, God! So materialistic.”

Vanessa snorted, whacking Brooke on the arm and setting all the bags on her own arm in motion like a capitalist Newton’s cradle. “I got absolutely no problem with that, but I don’t know how I’m gonna carry these bags around all day.”

As if on cue, a sleek black Bentley pulled up to the road in front of them, stopping just where they stood. Vanessa blinked at it, then slowly looked at Brooke. 

“This is...this is Jackie’s car?”

“No. It’s our car,” Brooke shook her head. “For today, at least. And we’re going for a ride in it to the next surprise.”

As Brooke popped open the boot, Vanessa looked to the sky, her smile beaming. “I’m just...in awe.”

“Don’t be in awe, just get in the car,” Brooke said, taking her bags from Vanessa to put in the boot and gesturing to the back door. 

Half an hour later of lazy conversation later they were clambering out of the car, Brooke being a little disappointed that the sun had retreated under grey clouds and the air had become decidedly more chilly than before. The grey of the sky seemed to hang over the park in front of them, making the day feel decidedly more Wintery after all. 

“Are we at Brockwell park?” Vanessa asked, a little dazed as she stepped onto the pavement and regarded the entrance in front of her. 

“Good guess,” Brooke said, taking Vanessa’s hand and leading the way to what she knew lay in wait for them. As they walked, Brooke was glad of Nina’s hand in the plan- one of her good friends worked for the council and she’d managed to arrange the surprise as a favour. It wasn’t as if it had been arranged for Green Park or Hyde Park, so Nina’s friend had managed to pull a few strings and get Brooke exactly what she needed. 

Sure enough, as they walked Brooke was relieved to find exactly what she had arranged- a huge, circular ice rink stood around one of the statues in the park, with lights strung up around the edges and a small booth at one side of the circle. It had drawn the attention of a few park-goers and a couple of dogs sniffed curiously at the newly-constructed wooden beams that acted as barriers around the edges of the ice. Brooke had been so busy admiring it that she had almost forgotten about Vanessa beside her. Turning to look at the other girl, she saw her standing completely still, staring wide-eyed at the scene in front of her. Slowly, she turned to face Brooke.

“You did all this...for me?”

Brooke looked to the ground then at the ice rink, suddenly embarrassed. This had all been too much effort, it was weird and intimidating and was probably freaking Vanessa out. “Well. I had some help, but...I really did want to give you a proper Christmas. I...hope that’s not too weird?”

Vanessa took both of Brooke’s hands, sighing before smiling at her again. “It’s not at all. You’re incredible. And I love ice skatin’, actually, so. Thank you.”

This time it was Vanessa that pulled Brooke forward by the hand and led her up to the small kiosk, where a jolly man behind the counter handed them two pairs of skates (Brooke had ensured they would be the right size before they arrived). As she watched Vanessa excitedly lace up her own boots and step out confidently onto the ice, she tried to ignore one big thought that loomed large in her mind.

_I can’t fucking ice skate._

“How does a girl from Puerto Rico become a semi-professional ice skater? Do they even have ice rinks there?” Brooke laughed as she watched Vanessa spin around on the ice from a safe vantage point (the fence). Maybe if she made enough jokes she’d get away with not stepping onto the ice at all. Vanessa simply came to a stop and smirked. 

“It’s not a fuckin’ third-world country, bitch!”

Brooke cringed, embarrassed that her comment got taken the wrong way. “Fuck, no, I know, sorry! I just...would it not melt?”

Brooke only grew more embarrassed as Vanessa doubled over with laughter, wheezing with her hands on her knees. “For one of the smartest people I know you can be so fuckin’ dumb when you wanna be. Of course it didn’t melt! We had a skatin’ rink that my Mama used to take me to for lessons ‘til I was about ten. A lot of it stayed with me, I guess,” she shrugged, skating forward and approaching Brooke. “C’mon, let’s go!”

As Vanessa gestured towards the rest of the rink, Brooke dug her fingernails into the fence she was leaning against. “Um. Is it not, you know. Too slippy?”

Brooke felt her face flush as Vanessa threw her head back and laughed. “Oh my Christ, Brooke, you did not take me to a skating rink when you can’t actually skate.”

Brooke simply blinked once before Vanessa snorted and skated forward to meet her. “C’mon, Bambi. I’ll teach you.”

Around one and a half hours later and the two girls had relocated once again, this time standing outside the door of Brooke’s flat as she nervously, shakily, tried to put her key in the lock. Adore had been the one to suggest the ice skating in the first place as she had insisted it was cute and a sneaky way to hold hands with each other but all Brooke had done for the hour they had been on the rink was crush Vanessa’s hands in a robot-style clamp, clinging onto her for dear life as Vanessa managed to skate flawlessly while simultaneously dying of laughter at Brooke doing her best impression of a foal with no joints on ice. Now Brooke was cold, tired, and her muscles hurt but she knew there was one last thing waiting for them on the other side of her door, at least as long as Jan and Scarlet had delivered. 

“You hungry?” Brooke asked Vanessa nonchalantly, as she finally put her keys in the door. A sleepy Vanessa suddenly perked up, her eyes brightening as she nodded. 

“God yeah. We should order Chinese when we get in.”

“I don’t know, 'Ness, that’s not very…” Brooke began as she opened the door, then relaxed as she saw what was on the other side. She turned to Vanessa as she opened the door wider and finished her sentence. “...Christmassy.”

Vanessa was no longer looking at Brooke and instead was gasping at what lay inside Brooke’s flat. Admittedly, this was the first time Brooke was seeing everything as well and she was glad that the girls had done so brilliantly with decorating the flat. Brooke had left them her spare key and the two had been there all day. A huge Christmas tree sat in the corner of the flat, perfectly decorated and shining with the warm glow of fairy lights that had been strung around it. The whole room was filled with the soft light of candles which smelt of orange and cinnamon, and paper chains were strung from the ceiling in dark reds and greens. The main event, however, and what took up most of the room, were two things. The first was Brooke’s kitchen table, which was set beautifully with all the correct cutlery, two different glasses for red and white wine, napkins and, of course, Christmas crackers. The second was Brooke’s countertops which held countless plates and bowls full of food. Vanessa stood at the doorway, gazing at it all in complete bewilderment. Taking another look at her face, Brooke grew nervous. 

“Fuck. I’m sorry, this is too much, isn’t it?” she blurted out. She hated feeling this way- so out of control of her own emotions, overthinking everything that she’d planned. Vanessa turned and fixed her with an incredulous look. 

“I mean yeah, it’s far too much,” Vanessa laughed a little breathlessly. “But that don’t mean I’m not completely appreciative and absolutely amazed at everything you’ve done for me today. This day has been like a movie or a fairytale or somethin’ like that and I just...I never expected that this could happen in real life, least of all to me, that somebody could care this much about another person to do all this, you know?”

Brooke could feel her pulse racing at her wrists. She didn’t know that Vanessa would like it this much, or be this thankful for everything that Brooke had done. Her heart swelled with pride as she leaned in and kissed Vanessa, the other girl wrapping her arms around her waist as she kissed back. As Brooke pulled away she looked to the floor, suddenly shy.

“Right. I’m hungry, let’s eat,” she bluffed in a way that she hoped covered all the emotions she felt. Vanessa shook her head and gave a long-suffering laugh as she made her way inside Brooke’s flat. 

“As always, you got such a way with words,” she fluttered her eyelashes sarcastically as she took a seat at the table and turned to face the kitchen so she could see the food. “What’d you make anyway?”

“So...again, I had some help here,” Brooke stood by the food on the countertops, beginning to explain. “But I know you never went home for Christmas. So I did some research, and I think- I mean, I hope- I managed to come up with an authentic Puerto Rican Christmas dinner.”

Vanessa clasped her hands together and gave a little cry of excitement, and Brooke took that as a cue to continue. 

“So we’ve got pasteles wrapped in banana leaves...there’s rice and peas, there’s potato salad...there’s, uh, an entire pork shoulder here too...and there’s also this drink, I think it’s like eggnog but with coconuts?”

“Coquito!!” Vanessa squealed, jumping up from her chair and throwing her arms around Brooke’s neck. “Oh my God, thank you so fucking much! I never got to eat any of this at Christmas, fuck, it all smells so good.”

Hugging her close, Vanessa planted a kiss on Brooke’s cheek, one that made her feel as if she was melting. As she pulled away, she jumped excitedly to the huge roasting tray of pork shoulder and bounced on the balls of her feet. 

“Now, you got two forks an’ we can shred this baby up?”

Some time later, both the girls sat at the table wearing Christmas cracker paper crowns and with stomachs completely stuffed with food. The conversation had flowed freely and easily, Vanessa telling Brooke all about the different dishes she’d made and the proper Puerto Rican names for them all, as well as telling her countless stories about growing up below the equator and Brooke regaling her with stories about her own high school life. It turned out that they had both gone to vastly similar schools even though they had been in different countries, and for the past five minutes they had been laughing about how the same rumours had spanned continents (specifically, that Marilyn Manson had ribs removed so he could suck his own dick). 

Vanessa’s laughter was interrupted as her phone vibrated against the table, and Brooke attempted to not be interested in who it was as Vanessa checked the screen, then smiled a little bashfully. “It’s my Mama. Wantin’ to know every single detail of today.”

“So she knows about me?” Brooke asked, a little apprehensive at the obvious answer. 

“Well, yeah. I share everything with her,” Vanessa explained flippantly, then stopped and gave Brooke a sort of pained look. “Fuck, that must seem a lil’ scary and intense. I’m sorry-”

“No, it’s fine! I get it,” Brooke said, desperate to make sure that Vanessa didn’t feel bad just for having a healthy mother-daughter relationship. “So you and your Mum are pretty close then?”

“Oh, totally. But I’m like that with all my family. My Tia, my Tio, all my cousins,” Vanessa shrugged contemplatively, then paused and gave a self-conscious laugh. “The day I left to come here we all just sat in the living room on the sofa an’ hugged an’ cried. It was super emotional.”

“Yeah, it must have been,” Brooke exhaled. “That first day in London must have been terrifying.”

“Jesus, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Maybe the worst day of my life,” Vanessa gave a sad smile as she thought back. “I couldn’t get the hang of the trains, I got totally lost...I ended up gettin’ off at Tottenham Hale an’ the lady at the ticket desk yelled at me about an Oyster Card for maybe a solid ten minutes- I didn’t know what the fuck she was saying- anyway, I eventually got on the tube and again, totally couldn’t get the hang of the map. In the end I got to Piccadilly Circus and just wandered around totally dazed an’ disorientated an’ I just felt so much like I didn’t belong, like I literally felt as if I was a puzzle piece that had been jammed into a place they didn’t fit. My stomach just churned the whole day- my Mama kept telling me to go to the hospital ‘cuz she was convinced I had a stomach ulcer. I don’t know, it was just so terrifying being in a situation where I knew nobody, absolutely nobody at all, having nobody to talk to or turn to. Y’know?”

Brooke nodded quietly. “Uni was like that for me.”

Vanessa nodded back, then broke out into a smile. “But you found Jackie, right?”

Brooke frowned deeply as she remembered everything from those years. “Well, we weren’t exactly friends at uni. I didn’t really like her at all to be honest.”

“How come?”

“She was annoying, and theatrical, and opinionated. She always had to have the last word. It was very much her way or the highway,” Brooke chose her words carefully. She didn’t want to talk about it at all, but complete avoidance of the conversation would just make Vanessa probe deeper. Vanessa, for her part, gave a gentle laugh. 

“So pretty much exactly the same as she is now?”

The two girls both giggled, Vanessa scowling at the table as her phone vibrated again. She picked her phone up, her fingers flying across the screen hastily. 

“Sorry, I’m bein’ so rude. She’s convinced that I’ve died if I don’t text back within, like, five minutes,” Vanessa explained apologetically.

“It’s okay. I know what Mums are like.”

“Is yours the same?” 

Brooke snorted, frowning. “Oh, fuck no. No, I just meant I know what they can be like in general. My Mum’s very...it’s very hands-off parenting. As in, we don’t talk.”

“Ever?” Vanessa asked in surprise, her voice barely a whisper as if she was scared to ask. 

“Well I come home at Christmas and stuff,” Brooke rubbed her face, a little embarrassed that she’d shared that much and wanting desperately to brush it off. “But apart from that we don’t really talk. My family aren’t really like yours.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Vanessa sighed, reaching across the table and taking Brooke’s free hand, rubbing her knuckles with her thumb gently. Brooke’s heart thudded deeply, and she smiled at Vanessa across the table. Suddenly, she became aware of shadows from the window dancing across Vanessa’s face and across the room. Turning, she almost did a double-take when she saw what was happening outside. Vanessa followed her gaze, then looked at Brooke and laughed. 

“No way. You’re taking the piss now,” Vanessa gave a shocked sort of laugh, gasping as she stood up from her chair and walked over to the big window right beside the Christmas tree. Brooke followed her, part of her wondering if this was something extra that the girls had arranged until she got to the window and saw that it was real; huge, fluffy white feather-like flakes of snow were drifting from the sky, carpeting the pavements and cars outside and turning everything into a cold, silent statue. 

Brooke couldn’t speak. Judging by Vanessa’s open-mouthed stare beside her, neither could she. Suddenly possessed with confidence, Brooke slipped her arms around Vanessa’s waist, turning her to face her. Before Vanessa could say anything, Brooke tilted her head and kissed her, her heart fluttering as Vanessa immediately kissed back with soft, urgent lips. She smelt of a light, flowery perfume and tasted like the white wine they’d both drank, and Brooke felt as if it was intoxicating her. As she brought a hand up to cup Vanessa’s face she felt as if she was the softest thing she’d ever touched, delicate and gentle in a way that slightly frightened Brooke. Vanessa then moved to tangle her fingers in Brooke’s hair, her tongue gently teasing Brooke’s own, and Brooke felt a level of affection that terrified her, one she hadn’t felt in many, many years.

And then suddenly a loud buzz rang out through the flat. Vanessa pulled away, irritated. 

“Who the fuck is that at this time?”

Brooke looked to the ground guiltily. “I arranged for the car to take you back to your flat so you didn’t need to get the tube or spend money on a taxi. I’m sorry- I never wanted to make it seem like I was kicking you out-”

“No! Don’t worry, baby. I appreciate it, honestly. Although maybe I could stay over eventually,” Vanessa winked. Just as Brooke was about to fire off another playful comeback she found herself being cut off by another kiss from Vanessa, this time gentle, less intense. Brooke didn’t know why, but she instantly felt much more relaxed and calm, as if she’d been saved from drowning. 

“You’re amazing. This whole day has been incredible,” Vanessa sighed, wrapping her arms around Brooke in a hug. Brooke hugged back, pressing a small kiss to Vanessa’s hair and never wanting to let her go as it would mean the day was at an end. 

She had to let go, of course, and let Vanessa grab her coat and bag from where she’d left them in a pile at Brooke’s doorway. As Vanessa opened the door, she turned and gave Brooke one last, final kiss. 

“Thank you for today,” she smiled, taking Brooke’s hands in her own. “I’m glad I got you.”

Brooke snorted a laugh, looking down at her shoes before meeting Vanessa’s eyes again. “We’re really making this a thing, huh?”

She smiled back at Vanessa, the two girls not really wanting to say goodbye and let the day be over. Brooke finally sighed and gave Vanessa’s hands a squeeze. “Glad I got you too. Take care, okay? I’ll see you on Monday.”

“I’ll let you know when I’m home safe,” Vanessa said, slipping her hands out of Brooke’s own and turning to make her way down the stairwell. “Goodnight, Brooke Lynn.”

“Goodnight, Vanessa,” Brooke gave a small, happy sigh, watching as Vanessa made it halfway down the stairs, turned, gave a shy wave, then continued until all that was left of her were her footsteps light on the stone of the stairwell and the heavy clunk of the front door as she was gone. 

As she shut the door, Brooke turned and leaned against it before sinking to the floor, smiling to herself as she felt her heart continue to beat at an impossible speed through her ribcage. 

She was pretty sure she’d never really felt like this before in her life, and she wanted to remember every moment of being this blissfully happy and gut-wrenchingly nervous all at once, in case she was afraid she might never feel it again. 


	11. Contempt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s New Communities launch day, and all should be well in the department. But a bad interview and a Jan that’s hiding something have disastrous consequences for the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning- threat to life

“Do you know,” Scarlet smiled, looking up from her monitor and catching the attention of the other girls in the department. “I think today’s going to be a really, really good day!”

Yvie groaned. Brooke had to agree that Scarlet’s predictions generally did the opposite of what they were meant to do and instead worked like a bad curse- however she thought something would pan out, the opposite would generally happen. Brooke could do without any bad omens today of all days, as it was particularly busy in DoSAC. However, she did also have every reason to be optimistic as she looked across the office and met eyes with Vanessa, the other girl giving her a long-suffering roll of her eyes at Scarlet’s words then laughing and blowing Brooke a kiss. 

The last month with Vanessa had been better than Brooke could ever have imagined. They were both frantically busy with work, of course, but they had always seemed to make time for each other. Vanessa was forever enthusiastic about finding new restaurants for them to go and visit after a hectic day, and Brooke always kept an eye out for nice little gifts or particularly beautiful bunches of flowers she could surprise Vanessa with. True to their word they hadn’t been particularly PDA at work, but Brooke enjoyed the moments that they could show a tiny bit of affection. They would sometimes go and make everyone’s drinks orders together, singing in ridiculous voices to whatever was playing on the kitchen radio. During any of Jackie’s meetings where Vanessa was looking a little more stressed than usual, Brooke would reach out and curl her pinkie around Vanessa’s own. If one of them was at the photocopier the other would find an excuse to be there too, hugging the other from behind. It had been a month to the day, Brooke realised, since that evening at the party conference. Her skin prickled a bit. She’d never really managed to stay together with anyone for that long before (well, apart from uni) and that slightly terrified her. Which was why when it came to any intimacy beyond kissing, like taking Vanessa back to her house after dinner, Brooke had been going at a snail’s pace. If that snail had been stamped on underfoot and then eaten by a passing bird.

“You know, I’d never imagined you were the take-it-slow type at all,” Vanessa had remarked after their last date, after Brooke had cut her off during a particularly heavy kiss and had begun to panic.

“Well, you know,” Brooke had blushed uncharacteristically. “When it’s someone you care about, you don’t want to fuck it up.” 

She thought Vanessa was probably fine with waiting. It was weird- an area of her life that Brooke never had any issue with was sex, and she didn’t really know why she was so nervous about it now. But if she was being honest with herself, she knew exactly the reason; because it was a deeper form of intimacy, and Vanessa was the first person she had really, properly cared about since...well, since the last time. And even though she’d told Vanessa how she felt about her and they were together, part of her didn’t want to share this aspect of her with her yet in case it brought everything crashing down around her. Brooke knew it didn't quite make sense. But it made sense to her. Besides, they would cross that bridge eventually.

Still, she hadn’t had time to think about the whole thing too much recently. Weeks and weeks at work had been building up to this day, and now it was finally here; tonight Jackie would be officially launching her policy to the press, meaning that it was going to be really happening, real party policy that Brooke had helped get through parliament. It was exactly what Brooke had come into the world of politics to do, make changes and change lives. She was proud of what they’d all achieved, and Jackie was on cloud 9 too. 

Except, as the Secretary of State walked into the department in the comfy trainers she normally wore walking into work, she didn’t look ecstatic. Neither did her blonde-haired advisor slash girlfriend, who followed behind her with a scowl on her face and thunderous footsteps. 

“Morning, everyone,” she said through gritted teeth. “Sorry I’m late, traffic was a bitch.”

Brooke didn’t miss the way Jackie spat out the last word, giving a sideways glance at Jan which the other girl glared at. She almost felt like flinching at the word Jackie used too; in all the time Brooke had known her she’d never been one to swear, and so it was a little out of character for her. Brooke also noticed that Jan was carrying Jackie’s briefcases, which was odd; Vanessa always carried Jackie’s bags, and sometimes Brooke, but never Jan. 

“Oh! Jackie. You should’ve said you were downstairs, I would’ve got those for you,” Vanessa said, a little perplexed herself as she gestured to the briefcases that Jan had now dumped on the floor.

“No thank you, Vanessa, Jan is perfectly capable of carrying a few briefcases. She does work for me after all, just like you,” Jackie grimaced, the cold tone to her words shocking even Brooke. Noticing how her arrival had changed the atmosphere, Jackie gave a cough before she carried on. “Right, launch day! Meeting room in five.” 

Everyone’s eyes were on Jan, sensing the tension in the room. Her face was blank but with an undertone of severely pissed-off, her brow furrowed slightly in a scowl Brooke could guess she didn’t know she was wearing.

“Aww, is Princess Janette sad that she had to carry the Minister’s bags?” Adore teased from her desk. 

“It’s about damn time you took the dispatch boxes for a change. I was beginning to think Jackie had favourites,” Nina chastised her friend without looking up. Jan turned to her and rolled her eyes. 

“Well, does anyone want a tea? I might as well while I’m here,” Jan asked, her tone a little resigned. Immediately about four different orders were shouted over to her, so Brooke rose from her desk. 

“I’ll come with. ‘Ness, do you want anything?”

“Nah. I’m alright, thanks, boo,” she smiled back, attracting some playful comments from the comms girls. Ignoring them, Brooke followed Jan to the small kitchen, immediately bursting to ask her about the weird atmosphere between her and her girlfriend. 

As soon as Jan reached the kettle she almost wrenched the lid off it as she filled it with water. Brooke watched silently and raised her eyebrows. 

“So um...everything okay with you and Jackie?” 

Jan thudded the kettle down and flicked the switch on it heavily. “We’re fine.”

Brooke sucked some air in through her teeth. “Are you sure? Because I’m detecting some weird vibes between you. And not the weird vibes you keep in your bedside table.”

“Brooke Lynn, I’m not in the mood for your shit jokes,” Jan immediately snapped back, her shoulders falling straight afterwards as she assumed she’d hurt her friend. Truthfully, Brooke couldn’t care less- she had a thick skin and comments that Jan made out of hurt or anger or whatever the fuck she was feeling weren’t really going to affect her. Out of perhaps guilt, Jan sighed and gently took some mugs out of the cupboard as her demeanour changed. “We’re okay. Thanks, Brooke. We’re just...going through a rough patch.”

Brooke wanted to know more, but she reasoned that she didn’t really have much of a place to ask about it. Helping Jan and reaching for some teabags, she tentatively opened her mouth. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Jan wordlessly shook her head. 

“Well, you know I’m here if you do.”

As Jan looked over at Brooke and gave her a small smile of gratitude, the kettle reached boiling point. Before Jan could begin pouring the teas, her work phone began to ring. She looked at the caller ID and frowned, then glanced at Brooke in a way she couldn’t quite describe. She seemed almost secretive. 

“I have to take this. Two minutes,” she said, stepping out of the kitchen and heading off down the corridor. That struck Brooke as odd- work was work, and a phone call was a phone call. She was always happy taking calls in front of Jan or Vanessa because it was for her job, and the girls were always the same with her. She couldn’t work out why it was different for Jan this time.

Staring at the cups in front of her, Brooke sighed. 

“I guess this is my job now,” she said to herself quietly, filling them up with water.

A few minutes and a tea delivery to the comms girls later, Brooke was entering the meeting room with two steaming hot cups (one for Vanessa, even though she’d said she hadn’t wanted anything, and one for her). Vanessa was busy doing the press round-up for Jackie, but stopped abruptly when the tea was placed in front of her. 

“You’re late,” Jackie addressed Brooke sternly as she sat down. 

“Sorry, I was too busy being the fucking barista at Starbucks. What have I missed?” 

Vanessa leant forward. “Well, obviously, most of the headlines are about the PM’s approval ratings absolutely pissing down the gutter.”

Brooke nodded. In the past week, the polls had received quite the turnaround for Jackie, but the PM’s approval ratings had plummeted and nobody could quite tell why, least of all Bianca who, every time Brooke had seen her in the past couple of days, had seemed close to a massive heart attack.

“Any headlines about new communities?” Brooke asked hopefully.

“Luckily, yes,” Vanessa continued. “Bianca is obviously overjoyed that our policy is a bit of governmental good news. The right wing papers, which is basically all of ‘em, hate it, but at least if they’re writing about it they’re not writing about the PM.”

“Which is great for me, being the boss’ fall guy,” Jackie rolled her eyes sarcastically from the other end of the table.

“You’re being well received on Twitter which is basically bigger than News 24 in this day and age and you’re ahead of Nicky by 5% in the polls, so you’ve got very little to be annoyed about actually,” Jan spoke up, her voice hard and cold and making everyone uncomfortable. Brooke narrowed her eyes at her friend, then looked at Jackie who had her eyes boring into her desk and her head down.

What the fuck had happened to make things like this?

“But at least the launch is tonight, right?” Brooke cut in before Jackie had a chance to talk back and make anything worse. “What we’ve all been working towards for what seems like years. You must be pleased?”

Jackie forced a smile, happy to be distracted by work. “I am glad, actually. I’m so happy to be doing something that actually matters, you know?”

With that, the glass door to the meeting room opened and Nina appeared.

“Morning, Secretary of State,” Nina smiled briefly as she formally addressed the Minister. “I know you are all very excited about this policy launch tonight, but you do have your BBC interview in about an hour, so if you could possibly make sure you’re prepped and double-prepped for that it would make my life roughly a thousand times easier.”

Jackie sighed, waving a hand and brushing Nina off as she slipped off her trainers and replaced them with her heels. “It’s fine, Nina, I’ve got the gist- make the policy outline rough enough so as not to confuse any panicky gibbering pensioners, make absolutely clear that we’re not going to make any native Aryan dream children homeless to appease the I Heart Tommy Robinson bunch and praise the PM in the wake of this approval ratings dip, so I’m prepped. I’m...damn well prepped.”

“Who’s actually conducting’ this interview today? Is it a Gemini interview?” Vanessa inquired, fixing Nina with a suspicious glare. 

“No, Raja’s out in Calais doing correspondent stuff at the moment so she’s incommunicado for now.”

“Oh, so it’s Chi Chi DeVayne,” Brooke concluded matter-of-factly. Nina gave a sort of foreboding murmur. 

“Not exactly, no. It’s um, Brianna Cracker.”

The three advisors gave Nina a look of confusion, Jackie giving out a cry as she struggled to shove her foot into the other high heel. 

“Who the hell is Brianna Cracker? I’m launching a government policy Nina, not a damn cheese factory!” she shouted with indignation, finally looking up at the other girls with her hair covering most of her face. 

“She’s a new girl that the BBC have got in, doing a lot of featurettes and online stuff- and she seems very nice,” Nina pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, clearly annoyed that her best (the bare minimum) clearly hadn’t been good enough. 

“Sunflowers are ‘very nice’, Nina, but talking to one doesn’t get you great media coverage, does it?” Jan sighed in resignation. 

“Prolly gets you admitted to an institution,” Vanessa rolled her eyes, Brooke biting back a laugh over the fact that her dry humour was clearly rubbing off on her. 

“Well luckily, she is _not_ a sunflower, she is a journalist, and one that is going to give you a very lovely piece on the BBC website about this very lovely policy that you are launching tonight, so you can suck it up and deal with it,” Nina glared at each of the advisors in turn, her eyes finally coming to rest on Jackie. The Minister in question threw her hands up in defeat. 

“Okay! Okay, God, well we’d better hope a clip gets shown on the lunchtime news or something, or in lieu of any proper coverage I might just have to get off my tits on ketamine and go running through the Houses of Parliament with _NEW POLICY LAUNCH_ smeared on my shirt in lipstick.”

“I assume that Bianca’s been in and left a brief or something? We haven’t seen her yet and the interview’s getting pretty close,” Brooke frowned at Nina, concerned. The spin doctor normally visited Ministers before they had an interview with any news outlets just to double-check they knew their lines. 

Nina frowned back and shook her head. “I’ve heard nothing from Bianca all morning.”

“Nothing from Bianca?!” Jackie cried incredulously, the other girls looking at Nina in horror. “Christ, perhaps she’s dead.”

“How can you have heard nothing from Bianca? The woman’s basically a walking talking telecommunications tower,” Jan asked, wide-eyed. Nina gave a flippant shrug as if she wasn’t the least bit bothered as long as it gave her less work to do. 

“Well, I have to just assume that there’s nothing that Bianca wants to discuss with me. Which is a bit like wandering into a lion enclosure and assuming they’ve just been fed,” Jackie reasoned, her voice tinged with dread. 

“Am I free to go now? I am getting a lot of calls, considering there is a policy launch tonight?” Nina asked impatiently, lingering at the door. 

“Yes, you’re free. Go resume your hectic schedule,” Jackie deadpanned sarcastically.

“Oh, Nina,” Vanessa stopped her just before she made to leave, Nina’s shoulders slumping in disappointment. “How many journalists we got confirmed for tonight?”

“We’ve got confirmed, four,” Nina said calmly. There was a chorus of disbelieving shouts in reply. 

“FOUR? We’re launching new communities, not announcing the Tweenies tour dates!” Jackie cried, her face completely outraged. 

“Nina, get onto everyone, start fucking harassing everyone! Now!” Brooke barked at her, staring at the carpet in disbelief as Nina hurried away. 

“Four journalists? My God. This is meant to be my pinnacle! I haven’t climbed up a mountain just to launch myself off the top!” Jackie ranted, holding her head in her hands.

“I’ll go and start ringing round too,” Jan said decisively, still clearly wanting to make the situation better for her girlfriend despite whatever had happened. 

“Yes, if you two could go and start doing that as well, that’d be a huge help. And Brooke, can I have you in with me for the interview?”

Brooke paused, a little thrown. Jackie usually took Jan with her for interviews. “You want _me_ with you for the interview?”

“Um, if you can spare the time!” Jackie snapped at her, clearly annoyed. 

“Fine,” Brooke blinked back, shrugging. 

“God, where’s Bianca when you need her? _Four journalists_?” Jackie hissed again as she sat at her desk and picked up her phone. “Let’s hope we get some more on board before this Camembert Ritz girl does the interview otherwise I may as well be whispering the policy into the ear of a dead tramp.” 

***

Brooke sat just out of view of the cameras and out of reach of the microphone. She nervously picked with a small corner of her notebook as she watched Jackie- calm, smiling at the camera, gesturing a little but not too much like they’d practiced (Bianca had once described Jackie in interviews as “a sweaty octopus trying to unhook a bra”). Jackie was doing well, but Brooke was always tense during interviews as she knew how wrong they could go. 

Brianna Cracker seemed pleasant enough though, and was smiling a little as Jackie answered her questions. So far it was a good interview, and Brooke thought she was perhaps almost able to relax. Jackie had answered the questions about her policy fluently and easily, and now there were just a few more to go before they could finish up.

“This policy has been described as the legislation that’s sewing the party back together, but nobody could miss the tension between you and some of the newer ministers at the party conference. What’s morale like around parliament?”

Brooke rolled her eyes. The media were still trying to drag up the party conference drama despite Jackie and Sasha being absolutely fine now, aside from a few small debates within the Commons. Knowing Jackie would handle the question well, Brooke turned to look at a bookshelf with a loose screw. 

“Obviously the Prime Minister has backed you on this policy, but surely you can’t ignore the most recent public polls- will there be people jumping ship in the coming months?” Brianna continued, Brooke frowning at her deeply. Her smile which had once seemed easygoing now looked slightly scheming, and Brooke prayed they wouldn’t have another Shangela Wadely situation on their hands. 

“Look, everybody has a dip in opinion polls every so often- I had one a couple of months back- ” Jackie shrugged. Brooke winced at the error; Jackie shouldn’t have reminded the media of that, “ - but I recovered from it and pushed forward. The Prime Minister was elected for a reason, by the public, and they have complete trust in him and so do I.”

“So you wouldn’t like to see a female leader any time soon?” Brianna questioned, cocking an eyebrow thoughtfully. Jackie paused and turned to Brooke, her face set in a grimace of pain. Brooke understood why. Jackie was currently a strong face of feminism in the public eye and she didn’t want to undermine that, but she also couldn’t risk undermining the Prime Minister. Brooke gave her an encouraging smile, knowing that Jackie would have the words to articulate herself properly.

“I mean at some point, yes, I would absolutely love there to be a female leader, but- but that point isn’t now,” Jackie began, nervously interrupting herself as she hastily explained what she meant. “Of course within society itself we are at the point where there should be female leaders, and eventually there should be a female PM, but I believe that our current Prime Minister is the best man for the job, and we should just let him get on with that job!”

Brianna smiled, satisfied with the answer, which in turn made Brooke release a breath she’d been holding. Relaxed, she fiddled with the loose screw on the bookshelf. “With the upcoming by-election-”

“I’m so sorry,” Jackie suddenly interrupted, prompting Brooke to look up at her sharply. Jackie was looking at her with a tentative face. “I said best man for the job. I should say best person.”

Brooke blinked, thought a little, then frowned. “You’d have to be really PC to pick up on that.”

“I think I should change it- could we just go again?” Jackie addressed Brianna, who gave a comfortable gesture and asked the previous question again. Brooke eyed Jackie as she gave much the same answer as last time.

“...eventually at some point, there should be a female leader, but I believe that our current PM is absolutely the best person for-”

Jackie’s final two words were cut off, however, as the bottom shelf of the bookcase suddenly clattered to the floor, its metal clang cutting through the room and making everyone jolt a little. Brooke looked at the previously loose screw she’d been fiddling with which was now lying on the floor. 

_Shit._

Jackie turned again to Brianna, smiling a slightly forced smile. “You did get that, right? Best person.”

“Oh, we got it. Don’t worry. Thanks so much for the interview Ms Cox, it was a pleasure,” Brianna smiled, reaching out a hand for Jackie to shake which she did. Brooke saw her shoulders dropping, tension gone as she was happy the interview had gone well, and Brooke supposed she could relax too. 

Coming out of the small meeting room that the interview had been set up in, Brooke saw Vanessa and Jan perched waiting at their desks, eager for news of how it had gone. 

“So? Smiles? Happiness?” Vanessa began, a hopeful smile on her face. 

“It went well!” Jackie replied, optimistic, then looked at Brooke. “Didn’t it?”

Brooke gave a shrug. “Seemed to. Back to prepping for tonight then? I still have about 90 leaflets to print for the press. Although I guess I should just make that 4, shouldn’t I?” 

“Shut up,” Jackie glowered at her, instantly annoyed at being reminded of Nina’s incompetence. They were both about to head back to their desks when a thunder of footsteps could be heard from down the corridor as if someone was running full pelt, and a loud, out-of-breath gasping gradually added to the frantic noise too. Frowning, Brooke took two steps forward towards the source of the noise when suddenly Bianca rounded the corner; her nostrils flared, a blaze burning in her eyes, and her face shiny with sweat. 

“Morning, Bianca,” Nina greeted her lazily from her monitor, Bianca completely ignoring her as she stormed towards the two girls. 

“I am going to fuck Three Mobile very rapidly and painfully up the ass with a rusty fucking poker, can you believe their fucking network is down?!” Bianca began, her voice a growl of frustration. “So I have been running around Westminster like a chicken with its fucking cock cut off delivering messages in person when a text could be fucking sufficient! I swear to Christ!”

“Yeah, that does sound a bit...shit,” Brooke hesitantly agreed with her, Bianca so angry that she was addressing Jackie and Brooke as if they were personally responsible for the Three network. “Erm. Did you want to see us?”

Bianca widened her eyes incredulously at her. “No, I didn’t want to see you! I’ve just run all the way from Richmond Terrace to Dosac to stand in your department and helicopter my tits around- no, I didn’t come here to see you at all!” 

Brooke blinked back at her, well and truly clamped. Having made her point, Bianca looked at Jackie and carried on.

“I wanted to tell you to push back the BBC interview an hour so that I could come and brief you, but, having just seen Miss Dairylea-Laughing-Cow herself Brianna Cracker exiting the building, I’m assuming I’m too fucking late.”

“You would be correct,” Jackie said, her face set in an apologetic frown. Bianca seethed and clenched a fist, then seemed to relax.

“Okay, well. How did it go?”

“Good. We did all the policy launch stuff and the basic outline like you’d told me to in the past.”

“Well, that sounds uncomplicated enough,” Bianca gave a whisper of a shrug, Brooke hoping that it signalled approval.

“She did ask me about the Prime Minister…” Jackie continued awkwardly. 

“And?”

“I said he was the best man for the job.”

Bianca’s brow furrowed. “And?”

“Well I changed it to best person, but a shelf fell down and I don’t know if they got it.”

Bianca looked between Brooke and Jackie, her face set in a look of disbelief. “A shelf fell down? What is this, a fucking 1920s black and white slapstick comedy? Who’s doing your next interview, Charlie fucking Chaplain?”

“I just didn’t know if they’d make something of it. Me saying best man, it might make people think I was implying I was the best woman?” Jackie bit her lip, a little worried. Bianca stood up and shook her head. 

“Nothing will happen. You couldn’t interpret that as a leadership bid,” Bianca began, shaking her head quickly. “The media are already having a field day with the PM’s approval dropping and the by-election coming up, they won’t bring you into the mix as well. I mean no offence, Jackie, but you’re hardly leadership material. Fucking curtain material in that dress, perhaps.”

Jackie stood for a moment, her mouth open in shock. Remembering where she was and collecting herself slightly, she simply sniffed and shrugged. “Well. I’m not attempting to be leadership material right now anyway. I’m backing the PM.”

“Right,” Bianca nodded sharply, turning on her heel and making to leave. “I’ll be back to brief you on PMQs at one, and obviously for your launch. Start working on your speech.”

As Bianca made her way down the office and turned the corner out of the department, the only noise that could be heard was the small murmur of the comms team as they answered phones and replied to emails. Vanessa was looking at Jackie in shock from her place on the desk, and Brooke wasn’t really sure what to say. Bianca was known for being harsh, but she’d never been this harsh with Jackie, at least not in front of Brooke. As Brooke turned to look at Jan to gauge her reaction, the familiar iPhone ringtone sounded and Jan slid off her desk, swiping across her phone and holding it to her ear as she hurried out of the department too.

“You okay, Jackie?” Vanessa asked as she approached the Minister. “That was kinda...mean.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine. I just…” Jackie trailed off, leaning on the frosted glass wall of her office and looking at the floor in disappointment. “I really thought I could be Prime Minister at some stage.”

“Did you?!” Brooke asked, blinking in shock. She never knew that Jackie had ambitions like that at all. Jackie, for her part, looked at her incredulously. 

“Yes! Didn’t you?” 

Brooke was taken aback at her accusing tone. “No, of course, I just never expected you to-”

“Okay, right,” the three girls were interrupted by Nina, who was standing up from her position on the other side of the room with an uncomfortable look on her face. 

“What’s wrong with you? You look like you’ve shat a sea urchin,” Brooke questioned.

“The BBC have put it on their website.”

“Put what?” Jackie asked, crossing the office briskly to Nina’s computer.

“You saying that the PM is the best man for the job...and they’re saying that you’ve fired the starting pistol for an election?” 

Jackie tore her hands through her hair as Brooke’s heart sank. “No! I _said_ best person, and the shelf fell down!” 

“This ain’t good,” Vanessa said, frowning and biting her lip. 

“What do we do? We can’t contact Bianca thanks to Three fucking Mobile,” Brooke frowned, inspecting the video of the interview playing on Nina’s screen.

“Screw the BBC and their new journalists, YOU said she was nice!!” Jackie exclaimed, pointing at Nina accusingly. “What kind of name is Brianna Cracker anyway, do people not think before naming their children?!”

“Your last name is literally Cox. I don’t think you can climb aboard your high horse about silly names,” Brooke deadpanned, receiving a death glare in return.

“Kill it, just kill the whole thing. Just kill the BBC. Set fire to tears,” Jackie spat, clearly irritated by the whole situation. 

“You sure that’s the right thing to do? Maybe making a fuss about it’ll make ‘em think they’ve got something on us, somethin’ they can really run with,” Vanessa frowned, offering her suggestion tentatively. 

“Vanessa, I appreciate the advice, but right now I want this shut down. The only thing I want my face associated with today is my policy launch, which is happening tonight by the way! In case everyone has forgotten!” Jackie cried, turning on her heel and disappearing into her office. 

Vanessa and Brooke looked at each other blankly. 

“Poor Jackie,” Vanessa sighed, looking at the glass door which had just been slammed behind her. “Tonight will be alright, won’t it?”

“Of course it will, you’ve been behind half the organisation,” Brooke reassured her, slipping an arm around her waist and enjoying the fact that she could just be near her and do those kinds of things without her heart feeling as if it was about to give out. “If you were the captain of the Titanic I don’t think it would’ve hit that iceberg.”

“Aww, how romantic. An’ historically inaccurate,” Vanessa smiled, tilting her head to the side and kissing Brooke gently. Someone, possibly Jaida, made retching noises in the background. 

“Do us a favour and actually vomit. Then maybe we could send it to the BBC as some kind of threat,” Brooke rolled her eyes in the general direction of the comms team, reluctantly pulling away from Vanessa. “Right, I’m going to get those leaflets sorted.”

“Hey,” Vanessa stopped her just as she’d walked a little way from the comms desks, a small smile on her face as she held Brooke’s hand gently. “You know it’s a month to the day since the conference? So, uh...happy month anniversary.”

Brooke tried to prevent a massive dumb smile from spreading across her face, but it was impossible not to. “Happy month anniversary. Although that term is a wild contradiction, but still. Sentiment that counts, right?”

Vanessa laughed softly, squeezing Brooke’s hand in her own. “It’s just been...the best time. An’ you really mean a lot to me. Every day I think about how lucky I am to have you.”

Brooke felt her face go red as she looked to the floor. She wasn’t one to get bashful easily, but Vanessa had that effect on her. 

“I always wake up so happy to know that I’m with you, an’ I love spendin’ time with you, even if it’s just at work,” Vanessa continued, her face suddenly becoming a mix of playful and reprimanding. “And I never thought I would be having this conversation at work, but _someone_ hasn’t invited me back to their flat yet.”

That moment was defining, thought Brooke. Standing there in the middle of work holding Vanessa’s hand and hearing her say all these things served to remove some kind of mental barrier in her head. She made a decision. 

“Well, tonight. After the policy launch. Come back to mine, we can get a takeaway and we can...see where we go from there,” Brooke smiled, bringing her arms around Vanessa again. Vanessa’s face lit up. 

“Oh Christ, you’re serious? Amazing. Jesus, that’s embarrassing, I feel like a damn teenager.”

“You’re never embarrassing,” Brooke brushed a bit of hair out of her face, then gave Vanessa a squeeze and stepped back. “But for now, policy launch shit needs doing.”

“I can think of somethin’ else that needs doing.”

Brooke feigned outrage. “Vanessa, I’m shocked you would be so vulgar in the workplace.”

As the two of them laughed, another barrier broke down in Brooke’s head. If everything went well tonight, she decided she would do something that she had only ever done once before in her life. It was terrifying, but she wanted to take the risk even if it meant rejection.

She was going to ask Vanessa to be her girlfriend.

As she smiled at Vanessa returning to her desk and sat down, Jan re-appeared from around the corner looking furtive.

“The wanderer returns,” Brooke said under her breath, causing Jan to come her way. 

“What did I miss?”

“The BBC are gunning for Jackie. Which you would know...” Brooke sighed and leant back in her chair, “...if you weren’t dashing in and out of the department all the time to answer your phone. Jan, are you going to tell me what the fuck’s going on?”

Jan frowned and made to walk away. “It’s just Bianca.”

“Christ Jan, if it’s an excuse at least make it a good one! Bianca’s mobile provider is down!”

Jan looked caught out for a moment, then straightened her spine and gave an indignant sniff. “You know, Brooke Lynn, it’s actually none of your business, so-”

“None of my busin- Jan, I’m your friend!!” Brooke cried, trying her best to keep her voice down despite the anger pulsing through her. “I know you don’t need to tell me everything that goes on in your life, but I really don’t want this to be another secret I find out about by accident!”

“Then stop asking me about it. So it can stay a secret,” Jan sighed, her face seeming sad and plaintive before she turned and walked back to her desk. 

Brooke frowned as she clicked onto the leaflets. She had to get to the bottom of this strange behaviour from Jan. If she was being honest and thinking back, Jan had been behaving a little strangely since just before the party conference: shielding her phone, being a little bit jumpy. Then came the high school friend, or uni friend, or whatever the fuck it had been at the conference. Since then, her and Jackie hadn’t seemed quite right at all. 

Brooke thought. What if this friend was the reason something wasn’t right? What if this friend wasn’t a friend at all, but something more? Her heart sank. Surely Jan would never do anything like that to Jackie. But she didn’t know. Maybe Jan was so fed up of hiding their relationship from the public eye, and so angry at Jackie for not wanting to go public, that she decided to indulge in a secret of her own? 

Looking onto her desk, she realised that Jan had left her phone behind. As if it was fate, a text pinged up on her screen. Brooke leant forward, careful not to pick up the phone, and took a closer look.

**From Andrew, 11.00am:** _Fantastic, babe. Obviously we can’t let anyone know until May but things are going so brilliantly just now. You’re amazing. See you at lunch x_

Brooke slowly leant back from Jan’s phone and blinked, staring at nothing in particular. 

This was bad. 

This was really fucking bad.

Hundreds of questions began to fill Brooke’s mind, but the main one was _what the FUCK?_ She thought she’d known Jan. She thought she was good enough of a friend to her that she could tell what her character was, what her morals were, what she might do and what she absolutely would never do. Something that Brooke thought was beyond Jan was anything to do with cheating, but now she just didn’t know. Or maybe Brooke was interpreting things the wrong way, maybe the message had just been innocent? She shook her head. She was loath to read the text again, but she could remember key points: _babe, we can’t let anyone know, you’re amazing,_ and the stomach-churning “x” at the end. It would explain why Jan had been running off to answer phone calls all day, although why he’d been phoning so frequently she didn’t know. All she knew was that she had to tell Jackie. 

Or did she? Looking into Jackie’s office, she saw the woman visibly stressed, her fingers massaging her temples with a frown set deeply on her face. She had all this shit going on with the BBC, and her policy launch tonight. Did she really need this brought to her now? Brooke bit her lip. If it was her in the same position, she would want to know. But it wasn’t her, it was Jackie, a very stressed and under-pressure Jackie, and Brooke didn’t want to make her whole day worse. Besides, the naive part of Brooke’s brain urged, she didn’t really have that much evidence, and it probably could be explained away easily. 

She looked up as Jan reappeared at her desk, obviously having realised she’d left her phone. Brooke watched her as she picked it up, gave Brooke a cursory, worried glance, and then hurried away with her phone close to her chest, her acrylics tapping on the screen.

Yep. There was definitely a reasonable, innocent explanation to all of this.

***

If Brooke had to pinpoint the moment that the day began to go downhill, it was the moment that Jackie stormed out of her office, the open door allowing the noise from outside to stream into the department. It sounded like a small crowd, all shouting and clamouring. 

“Oh my God. There is a crowd outside of about ten journalists, and they are ALL here for me, and somehow I don’t think they want to talk about the policy launch tonight,” Jackie seethed, pointing dramatically to the windows. 

“Ten?” Vanessa repeated, looking to Brooke nervously. Brooke knew what she was trying to communicate. 

“Ten constitutes a lockdown,” she said, Jackie staring at her incredulously. “Sorry Jackie. It’s Bianca’s rules, we go cold turkey on them, no phones, no emails, no exit, and they go away.”

“Fuck. I knew, I actually fuckin’ _said_ that this would happen,” Vanessa sighed despairingly, wrenching her department phone from its cable and slamming it on the desk. 

“Can somebody get Bianca round here instantly before I have a stroke,” Jackie breathed, appearing to be on the verge of a breakdown. Vanessa was shouting to the comms team about the lockdown, the girls all groaning and shaking their heads in response. From the other side of the room she saw Jan spring up from her desk. Jackie followed her gaze. 

“Jan?” she called, but the other girl simply waved her away as, yet again, she ran out of the department to take a phone call.

Jackie was silent from her position beside Brooke’s desk. Looking down and seeing that Brooke’s eyes were already on her, she coughed. “She’s probably, um. Probably gone to phone Bianca.”

“Probably,” Brooke agreed, then looked at Jackie again. She hadn’t been able to get anything out of Jan, but she could maybe get somewhere with Jackie. Under her breath, she continued. “You two don’t really seem all sunshine and rainbows at the moment, everything okay?”

Jackie gave a heavy sigh, leaning forward on Brooke’s desk. “We had a monstrous row this morning. She wants to go public, I said no. She accused me of being ashamed of our relationship, I obviously told her in no uncertain terms how that was a steaming pile of...poo,” Jackie folded her arms, looking down the corridor that Jan had disappeared down. “She’s got a cheek, to be honest, considering how weird she’s been acting all week.”

“Oh. Has she?” Brooke played dumb. Jackie glared at the corridor. 

“She’s been hiding her phone from me, going out for dinners with random friends I’ve never heard of, shutting her laptop as soon as I come into whatever room she’s in.”

Brooke’s stomach tightened. Now would be the moment to mention things. But Jackie continued. 

“I trust her. I do, I just...things are hard. With the launch. And I really don’t have the time to think about or imagine worst case scenarios right now,” she exhaled, pushing herself off the desk. “So I’m just not thinking about it until everything is over. That’s not weird, is it? Am I being a total mug?”

Brooke couldn’t help but give a snort. “Someone’s been watching too much Love Island.”

“That show is heterosexual trash and I won’t stand for it,” Jackie deadpanned, then looked at Brooke in the eyes. “Seriously though, Brooke. Am I being dumb?”

Brooke knew that she had to mention it. She had to say something now, otherwise she never would.

“Right!” Nina yelled chirpily from the other end of the office, breaking the hushed conversation in half and forcing both girls to look towards the head of comms. “I’ve got some good news, two pieces actually.”

“Well, we could certainly use some,” Vanessa smiled tightly, inviting Nina to continue. 

“Firstly, I’ve been able to get hold of Bianca through Number 10’s landline. She’s coming round so everyone just...gird your loins. Secondly,” she breathed in and looked at her laptop screen. “The Herald are backing Jackie’s leadership bid, because they admired the stance you took on the war on benefit claimants.”

Jackie’s jaw dropped. “ _Good_ news?? This is catastrophically _bad_ news!! No wonder Bianca’s coming over here, she probably wants to sever my head off with a Stanley knife!!”

“This is what you wanted though, right? I thought you had your sights set on leadership eventually?” Vanessa offered, ever the optimist. 

“But not now!! Not while the PM’s having a ratings crisis and need support! Jesus scuttering Christ,” Jackie hissed, slamming her hands on Brooke’s table and walking across the carpet to nowhere in particular. Brooke didn’t miss Jan re-appearing, sliding into her desk chair as if nothing had happened. 

Jackie continued to pace around the office until Bianca arrived some minutes later, the look on her face reminding Brooke of school when she was in serious trouble. 

“Ah, Dosac,” Bianca began, her face set in a sarcastic smile. “Truly the Harry, Ron and Hermione of government departments. Why, why, fucking _why_ is it always you?! The PM is as mad as a dickless dog, and he is particularly fucking furious with you, Jackie.”

“Bianca, please can we skip to the part where you mop up this mess for us, because currently the pavement outside my office is looking very splatty and comfortable and I’m just...I’m tired,,” Jackie sighed, rubbing her forehead. 

“Calm down. I’ve got a plan,” Bianca said, her strong voice a welcome presence in the room. She turned around and addressed Nina. “Nina, I want you to get Jackie’s car outside.”

“My car?”

“And Jackie, I just want you to pretend,” Bianca continued, “that you have a lunch, or a terrible dress convention, or some-other-fucking-thing to attend to. And on your way out of the building, you address the journalists, and this is what you say.”

“ _Say_?!” Jackie continued, her hand flying to her chest. 

“You are _not_ challenging the PM. You are _not_ launching a leadership bid. The Prime Minister is the man to lead us for the foreseeable future. He is the man- of the moment! And then you just get in your car and, I don’t know, drive about a bit or attach a fucking hosepipe to the exhaust or whatever. Is that manageable?”

Jackie blinked, then rubbed her chin. “And you think it’ll make them all go away?”

“It’s worth a fucking try,” Bianca sighed, shaking her head. “But you need to give them something, Jackie, they know I’m in here because I had to fight through them with a fucking samurai sword to get in the bloody building.”

“Right,” Jackie said decisively, turning and running into her office to grab her bag. “Vanessa, can I have you with me on this please?”

Vanessa shot up from her desk and got herself ready. Jan watched with detached interest from her own desk. 

“Vanessa, I need you on the phone with me throughout all of this,” Bianca addressed her, then shouted over to the comms team. “Can someone get the TV out?”

Brooke felt a little overwhelmed. Everything seemed to be happening so quickly and she felt caught up in the momentum that Bianca’s idea was gathering. 

“The man of the moment, the man of the moment, the man of the moment,” Jackie muttered to herself as she stormed down the department, Vanessa running behind her and Bianca shouting encouragement after them both. 

Brooke, Jan, Bianca and the comms girls immediately sat in front of the TV, which Adore had dutifully wheeled out, reminding Brooke of primary school. Now, though, they weren’t about to settle down to watch a fun, educational programme about times tables- they were about to watch Jackie face the media, and the knot in Brooke’s stomach only worsened as, through a BBC live stream, she saw Jackie appear through the revolving glass door. The press immediately hounded her for a statement.

“Miss Cox! Miss Cox. Does the Prime Minister have your backing?”

Jackie had that media-suitable smile on her face as she addressed the crowd. “Yes, the Prime Minister has my full support.”

“Miss Cox, does Janette Manitone have your backing?”

And then the whole room froze.

Perhaps the TV screen had frozen but no, the journalists were still moving and shouting. But Jackie just stood completely still, her mouth hanging open, her face chalk white. Brooke couldn’t look anywhere but the screen. 

“I...what, sorry?”

“Janette Manitone, your advisor? Are you backing her bid to be an MP?”

It was that moment that Brooke turned her head to face Jan who was standing behind the sofa; fingers grasping the headboard for dear life, jaw set tight and tense, her face completely grave. 

“I...don’t know anything about that, sorry,” Jackie continued, stuttering her words as she stood, confused, in the light of the cameras.

“Who are you backing, Miss Cox?”

Jackie momentarily let a look of irritation pass her face. “I’m backing the Prime Minister, he is absolutely the right man...for the moment.”

Bianca exploded. 

“ _For_ the moment?! Vanessa,” she addressed the other advisor on the phone, “get the dosy cow back up here! Don’t let her get in the car!”

Brooke couldn’t even process the blunder that Jackie had made. Her eyes were still trained on Jan. 

“Jan,” she said quietly. “Who’s Andrew?”

In the background on the news she could hear Jackie repeating her mistake as she walked back into the department. 

“Jan.”

Jan pushed herself off the headboard of the sofa and took a deep breath. Her voice was small as she began. “He’s my campaign manager. I was going to stand in the by-election for Westminster. Today I was going to find out if I had enough support.” 

Brooke let what seemed to be all the air out of her lungs at once. 

“I, um. I hadn’t told Jackie.” 

“Clearly,” Bianca frowned, looking at the TV and then at Jan, Brooke feeling a cold, prickling sense of dread overcoming her knowing that Bianca didn’t even know how bad this was going to be. 

A few minutes of frosty silence later where the comms girls slinked awkwardly back to their desks, Jackie emerged and came charging towards the three of them. She targeted Bianca first. 

“That was utterly embarrassing. For God’s sake Bianca, why am I back up here?!”

“Shouldn’t that be _‘of_ God’s sake’?”

“What?”

“Can I just quote to you your own words? ‘The Prime Minister is the right man- _FOR_ the moment’?” Bianca scowled, gesticulating wildly at Jackie, who had folded her arms in a defensive position. 

“Yes! That was what you told me to say!”

“OF the moment! I told you to say OF the moment! There is a huge fucking difference between me saying ‘Jackie! I would like to go _for_ a lovely walk with you! _’_ and ‘Jackie! I would like to make a necklace out _of_ your fucking teeth!’ Now you look even more likely to form a fucking cabal!”

Ignoring the other woman’s wrath, Brooke’s heart dropped as Jackie turned to face Jan. She had a deeply hurt expression on her face.

“So! Jan! Here’s the thing. Apparently you’re going to be an MP!” she began sarcastically, her mouth twisted in a smile that caused Jan to look to the floor. 

“Jacks, look...I didn’t want to tell you while-”

“Oh no, no that was pretty damn clear. So what was it, you were just going to tell me...when? When you were standing up there on the podium on election night? When I saw your face on a billboard? When?” 

Brooke watched as the whole department fell silent. Her eyes flickered to Bianca’s face. She could tell that she was beginning to see there was something going on.

“I wanted to tell you, I just-”

“Just what?! Just what, Jan? Because from what I’ve experienced when something major is happening in your life, you actually tell your girlfriend about it!”

There was a small shift of movement and noise in the previously silent department. Two people had gasped. Like a horror movie, Brooke found it impossible to look away to see who it had been, and she didn’t even want to look at Bianca’s face just now. 

“Well you like keeping me a secret so much, Jackie, so why aren’t I allowed one of my own?” Jan yelled back, the two women openly shouting at each other now.

“What’s this really about, Jan? Did you get bored of me? Have some fun with a cabinet minister, sleep your way to the top then once you gain enough power and influence you just sneak off into the night?” Jackie continued, her eyes slits as she glared at Jan. Jan, for her part, let out a bubble of a sob. 

“You know what? Maybe I _am_ bored of you, maybe I _am_ bored of your self-centredness and your absolute dedication to work that involves shutting out other parts of your life, including me! You wouldn’t know this, Jackie, but every time I tried to bring up this MP shit the conversation would magically get sidetracked to you: to your policy launch, to your next interview, to how stressful things were for you, but never me! Never about my work! So why should I fucking bother?!”

“Christ, Jan, well if you're so unhappy why don’t we just call it a day! Since you’re clearly this big, important rising political star! You definitely don’t need me anymore!” Jackie spat, Brooke wanting to do something, anything to calm them both down and steer the conversation away from where it was clearly heading. 

“You know what, maybe I don’t need you! I don’t need you! I’ve never needed you!” Jan shouted, tears openly flowing down her face as she sniffed again and again. “But if you let me go Jackie, you have fucking...done it, you’ll be making a big mistake and you’ll lose me for good, I swear to God.”

“What am I losing, Jan, hm? A generic tiny blonde Barbie doll who makes a shit cup of tea and likes to...betray me and hang me out to dry at the drop of a hat? Wow, what a _huge_ loss!” Jackie yelled back, and she had started to cry now too, black mascara tears running down her face. 

The two girls were in a knife fight, constantly lashing out and cutting and hurting one another whilst simultaneously mutilating themselves, and still Brooke couldn’t look away. It was as if she was watching her friends fight through a dream, a nightmare, and perhaps she’d wake up, she _had_ to wake up, this couldn’t be happening now.

“Fuck you,” Jan spat quietly, her breath coming in shudders as tears rolled down her cheeks, and Jackie was a mirror image, raw emotion displayed on both their faces. “I loved you, Jackie.”

“You did all this behind my back, knowing how much it would undermine me and yet you still went ahead with it? No. You never loved me, Jan,” Jackie gave a choked, angry laugh. 

“Well do you know what? Maybe this is for the best. Because now I see how much I _really_ mean to you, compared to this job. I had always wanted to be an MP, and you can’t even support me in this? I thought I knew who you were, you were meant to love me,” Jan cried, her voice a hoarse whisper in the silent department. “Now I see you’re just like the rest of them, a fucking...self-centred, vacuous, work-obsessed robot!”

“Get out of my department,” Jackie’s voice was low as she looked at the floor. “And get out of my life.”

And with that, Jan gave a shuddering sob, letting her head hang as she walked quickly to her desk, scooped up her bag and coat, and ran out of the department just as Jackie had ordered her to. Nobody spoke, not even Bianca, and everyone watched as Jackie walked very slowly and deliberately to her office, made her way inside, grabbed the handle and slammed the door shut so loudly and forcefully that Brooke could feel her blood vibrating. 

Jackie’s sobs echoed through the building.

***

The rest of the afternoon and much of the evening leading up to the launch was something that could never normally be said of Dosac- it was quiet. 

Jackie stayed in her office and the mood around the department was somber, like that of a funeral. Jan was notable by her absence, her computer still on in front of her desk chair as if she’d just popped out momentarily. Bianca had been in with Jackie and the two had spoken quietly, Brooke assuming that Bianca had utilised some of her softer side as Jackie presumably told her everything that had gone on between her and Jan for the past few months. After their meeting Bianca had stayed in the department just in case anything further happened with the press. Eventually, Vanessa rose from her seat and approached Brooke’s desk. 

“Thought it’d be nice if we maybe went and got Jackie some nice food and a coffee. She ain’t eaten yet today an’ I feel like she could do with something after...everything,” she suggested.

So ten minutes later, Brooke found herself waiting for a chicken shawarma in Leon, while Vanessa had popped out to Joe and The Juice to get Jackie a green smoothie. 

“She’ll hate it,” she’d said by way of a momentary goodbye. “But it’s full of nutrients and she’ll need those. Oh, an’ get her a bottle of water. She’ll be all dehydrated from cryin’.”

Brooke had done as she was told, and her order had just been called when Vanessa arrived back from her smoothie-finding expedition. 

“Ready to go? We should prolly be getting back, the launch is in less than an hour. Although whether Jackie’s gonna actually be able to do the launch, Christ knows,” Vanessa bit her lip as Brooke picked up the takeaway bag and they both walked out of the shop. 

“Jackie’s made of tough stuff. She’ll be fine,” Brooke said, although she would have been lying if she wasn’t doubting the words as they came out her mouth.

“I hope so. Shit, promise me we’ll never end up in an argument like that,” Vanessa sighed, slipping a hand into Brooke’s and making her feel warm despite the drizzling rain. 

She laughed. “I don’t think you’re going to end up backstabbing and undermining me any time soon, 'Ness.”

Vanessa was silent for a moment and bit her lip. “Jackie said some shitty things, though.”

“She was angry. I’m not saying it’s okay, but she won’t have meant it. Jan, I think, is going to be deeply hurt. I’m worried about how they’re going to recover from this, you know what they’re both like.”

“I think they both think it’s completely over,” Vanessa sighed, suddenly giving Brooke a funny look. Pausing, her voice took on a different tone. “You knew, didn't you? All this time. About them bein' together.”

Brooke gave a brief and wordless nod. Vanessa frowned.

“Why d'you never tell me? I know I wasn’t your...with you, at that point,” Vanessa corrected herself, making Brooke’s heart leap a hurdle. “But I was still your friend. I was friends with the both of you. I know it would've been shit if it had got out, but still. I wouldn’t have told anyone.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Brooke said truthfully. She really did regret not telling Vanessa. Who knew, things might have been different if she had known. Maybe they would have been closer. Maybe they would've got together sooner. Brooke inwardly kicked herself for idealising the situation to her own advantage as they both stepped back into the department. 

“It’s okay. Just...tell me shit from now on,” Vanessa gave a soft laugh that was only slightly hurt, which made Brooke feel even worse. Before she could attempt to apologise again, Vanessa changed the subject as they got into the lift. “Do you actually think she’ll do the launch, Brooke Lynn?”

Brooke frowned. “I don’t know, but we’ve got to hope so.”

As the lift reached their floor, the two girls walked across the quiet office and gave a gentle knock on Jackie’s door, where the blinds had been pulled down. A faint call of permission came from inside, and Brooke pushed down on the handle and entered the room. It was dark, as the lights had been switched off, and Jackie sat at her desk staring blankly, unnervingly, into space. In front of her sat her phone, a ripped envelope, and a typed piece of paper. Brooke was confused, realisation only dawning on her as Vanessa began talking. 

“We got you somethin' to eat. I know you might not want it, but you’ll need it for your launch tonight,” Vanessa set it down on Jackie’s desk with a kind smile. 

“Ness,” Brooke began gently. 

“It’s just a chicken shawarma an' a smoothie, an' there’s some water there if you want it. Just try an' eat something, Jackie, it might make you feel better?”

“Vanessa,” Brooke sighed, taking two steps forward to the desk and picking up the piece of paper. “She’s not going to do the launch.”

As she saw Vanessa give her a questioning glare in her peripheral vision, Brooke read the words on the paper which confirmed what she had already thought was true. 

_I’l be waiting at the launch tonight!! Hope your excited to die you terorist sympithiser bitch_

Passing the paper to Vanessa, Brooke’s heart sank as she looked at Jackie. Jackie’s unblinking, glassy eyes finally met her own.

“Bianca’s sent a car for me, and a bodyguard. They’re taking me home, and the guard’s going to stay with me in my flat. I’m not doing the launch,” Jackie said quietly, disappointedly, before looking at Vanessa and giving a sad smile. “Thanks, though. For the food.”

Brooke couldn’t help but be a little surprised. “Wait, you’re really not going ahead with it?”

“Brooke Lynn!” Vanessa hissed at her. 

“What? I’m just saying. You’re Jackie Cox, the political tour de force. Just last month you gave a speech to a room much bigger than tonight after getting one of these bullshit death threats, we know they’re full of hot air. I’m just wondering what makes tonight so different?”

Jackie gave a mirthless laugh. “I don’t care about the threats. Let them threaten me, whoever they are, it’s obviously just a baseless scare tactic. But Jan,” her voice gave a crack as she said the other girl’s name. “I can’t do...anything without Jan.”

Brooke stood quietly. She had no idea that Jackie would have been that affected by what had happened, presuming that she was the sort of person who would maybe have a cry about it and move on. She had had no idea that Jackie’s love for Jan was so deep. 

“Jackie, I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t be sorry. I’m better off, I’m sure. I’ll be fine,” Jackie said coldly, Brooke knowing immediately that her tone was meant to mask her real feelings.

“I’m sure she wants to make up,” Vanessa consoled her. 

“I’m not going to hear anything from her today. And probably never will hear anything from her again.”

Just then, there was a soft knock on the door. Bianca’s head appeared from behind the glass, her face grave. 

“Your car’s ready,” she said simply, frowning as she looked back into the office. “But there’s a lot of press arriving. Didn’t Nina cancel everything?”

“God. I didn’t get her to cancel. I haven’t left this office, Bianca,” Jackie said, rubbing her already very swollen and red eyes. Bianca frowned, obviously ready to shout at her and then deciding that it could probably wait until she wasn’t heartbroken. 

“Well, we’ll need to go and cancel it now. But this isn’t going to look good. At all,” Bianca said tersely.

“I’m sorry that me breaking up with my girlfriend is causing an inconvenience to Westminster,” Jackie deadpanned humourlessly, leaning back in her chair. Bianca gave her a steely glare. 

“The girlfriend that you should never have got involved with in the first place and that you were very, very fucking lucky never found its way into the press,” Bianca muttered quietly, as Jackie hung her head. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Right, well. That’s that then. I’ll go and tell Nina.”

Brooke suddenly found her mouth opening before she could stop it. “I’ll launch it.”

The room seemed to buzz with silence. Jackie looked at Brooke quizzically. Brooke gave a shrug.

“It doesn’t technically need to be launched by Jackie. I know basically what it is, and could just explain it briefly. I know that Jackie would be conspicuous by her absence but it’s better than cancelling the whole thing.”

Jackie shook her head. “You really don’t have to do this.”

“I don’t. But I want to,” Brooke said simply. 

As soon as she glanced at Vanessa and saw her looking at her proudly, she knew she’d made the best decision.

“Right. Okay then,” Bianca shrugged. “Well, we’ve not got long. Let’s get you mic-ed up.”

The time passed very quickly after that, Brooke thought, as she was rushed through a series of briefs from Bianca as Vanessa spruced up her makeup and Jackie watched silently from her chair. It was crazy how much of a flurry everything was, and Brooke wondered how Jackie could do this every day. 

She couldn’t help but think about Jan; where she was now, what she might have been doing. She wondered if she was still going to go ahead with trying to be an MP or whether she might ever patch things up with Jackie. Brooke supposed that in any normal relationship that had lasted the length of hers and Jackie’s things could have been repaired, but Jan was both hot-headed and sensitive and Jackie was proud and sucked at communication. Brooke knew that first-hand.

Brooke caught Vanessa’s eye as the other girl dashed back to her makeup bag to fetch something, and they shared a reassuring smile. Christ, she hoped nothing would ever go wrong between them.

Before long she was standing at the door to a room which contained about twenty journalists, all phones-out and recorder-ready. Nina had explained that in the wake of the day’s events, she’d found it suddenly easy to get journalists to attend a Jackie Cox launch, many of them clearly hopeful that a leadership announcement would be forthcoming. 

“Right. Okay. Guess I’m about to launch a policy that isn’t mine,” Brooke took a shaky breath as she looked at Vanessa, who was there for moral support. Vanessa looked at her, her eyes soft, and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. 

“You’ll be amazin'. I know you’re gonna do it justice. Jackie would be proud of you. I’m proud of you,” she said, giving her a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

Brooke’s heart thrummed in her chest as she remembered the promise she’d made to herself, and that if everything went well tonight she would finally be able to call Vanessa her girlfriend. It seemed too outrageous to ever be true but Vanessa was beside her, holding her hand and smiling, and so Brooke felt that maybe she had every reason to be optimistic. 

The journalists looked disappointed as Brooke walked across to a small podium beside a slideshow, ready to begin. Vanessa stood just outside of the room at the door, and gave Brooke a big thumbs-up. With a quick glance to the first slide, which read “ _New Communities- Jackie Cox is thinking outside the box_ ”, and then to the audience, Brooke began to speak without having really planned what words would come out. 

“Um. Hi everyone. No need to stand, as I said to Jackie Cox earlier today,” she laughed awkwardly, receiving radio silence from the audience. “In all seriousness I should clarify that Jackie Cox has no intention of challenging the Prime Minister and fully supports his visions for the future. Incidentally, erm, Jackie’s not here, she’s come down with something and has had to go home, but we thought that we should still have everyone here to celebrate the launch of this policy that Ms. Cox has managed to create. It really is something special.”

Brooke clicked onto the next slide which revealed a pie chart and lots of figures. Panicking slightly she looked to Vanessa, who gave her a blank glance. Brooke had never seen this powerpoint before, and with a sinking feeling she realised that Jackie and Jan must have worked on it together. 

“Um. Not really sure what that’s meant to represent, but...it’s definitely something good. Unless it’s a reference to the current opposition. In which case...it’s bad.” 

Brooke’s blood gave a jolt as the journalists began to laugh. She was always confident, especially in situations like this, and she never gave a fuck what people thought, but now she was self-conscious. She clicked onto the next slide, which showed a run-down street in the baking sun, with a disillusioned-looking family sitting on the pavement outside a crumbling house. _Okay_ , thought Brooke. _Easy enough reference, obviously the refugees that we’re meant to be welcoming._

“New Communities will provide stable, safe homes for victims of war or drone strikes in countries such as Syria or Iraq. This is an illustration of how families can live in such countries-”

The journalists were laughing again. Brooke stopped abruptly and looked at Vanessa, wide-eyed. Vanessa motioned frantically to her phone. Brooke immediately checked hers from under the podium. 

_V: THAT'S TOWER HAMLETS!!!!!!!_

_V: IN LONDON!!!!!!!!_

Brooke’s stomach dropped. She needed to get out of the situation quickly. 

"In all honesty, all the literature is there on the tables at the back and it's really quite self-explanatory, so help yourself to nuts and crisps and-”

Another murmur from the journalists made Brooke stop, but this time they weren’t concerned with her. They were looking at the door. Brooke followed their eyes and to her surprise she saw Jackie standing in the doorframe: her outfit immaculate and crumple-free, her makeup pristine, and a wide smile on her face which didn’t look the least bit fake. A tall, broad man in a suit stood beside her, clearly her newly-appointed bodyguard. As Brooke met her eyes she noticed they were still puffy, but the redness had been taken away by concealer. Jackie raised her eyebrows at her expectantly. Brooke turned back to the journalists and stuttered. 

“And...here is Jackie Cox, to explain New Communities better than I ever could.” 

With that, the audience clapped, and Jackie walked up to the podium quickly and confidently with her bodyguard following her like a shadow, her back straight and her head held high. Brooke walked to stand beside Vanessa, both their faces the picture of shock. As Jackie started speaking, Brooke leaned in to Vanessa. 

“How the fuck-”

“I don’t know,” Vanessa answered immediately, shaking her head. “But let’s hope it goes well. We’ll stay an' watch this then go back to yours, yeah?”

Brooke smiled and nodded, her heart immediately thumping quickly again, and was about to say something when Bianca appeared in the doorway and took Brooke’s arm. 

“A word?”

Brooke grimaced as she was led out of the room. She immediately assumed she was about to be bollocked for the mess she’d made of the launch. But as Bianca led her into a small supply cupboard her face wasn’t particularly grave, which gave Brooke hope.

“That was a very courageous thing to do, Brooke. An advisor launching a cabinet minister’s policy.”

“Why is she out there? _How_ is she out there? Bianca-”

“I just gave her a pep talk. Asked her if she really wanted Brooke Lynn fucking Hytes to be the face of her policy for years to come,” Bianca gave a smirk, Brooke rolling her eyes.

“Was this an actual pep talk, or a launch-the-fucking-policy-before-I-replace-your-eyes-with-party-poppers pep talk?”

“Hey, I can be quite fucking motivational when I want to be!” Bianca chastised her, picking up a random pen from a shelf and fidgeting with it. 

Brooke frowned. “Bianca, there was another threat on her life.”

“Oh, come on Brooke, do you not think I know that? Did you not see the fucking six foot man mountain Phil Mitchell wannabe I sent her in there with? Besides, she’ll be fine. Anyway, I’m not here to talk about Jackie,” Bianca’s eyes suddenly bore into Brooke’s, Brooke suddenly wondering if she was about to receive praise or censure. “I’m here to talk about you. You remember the jobs I was talking about at Number 10?”

“Yes, of course,” she replied, wondering immediately where this was going. Her newly-optimistic brain was immediately hopeful.

“Well, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I wanted to let you know you’re in the frame. The PM will be starting the selection process in a few weeks. We’ve been talking, and we’re both impressed by your skill set,” Bianca said, her face letting Brooke know that nothing she was saying was a joke. 

She could hardly believe it. “Jesus, Bianca, that’s amazing. Thank you. Seriously, thank you-”

“Although,” Bianca continued, her eyes narrowing. “You know how word gets around. Is it true you’ve shacked up with Little Miss Foghorn herself out there?” 

Brooke’s blood froze, her heart suddenly hammering in her ears. “How the fuck did you know about that?” 

“Well, when the whole of Dosac knows,” Bianca gave a small laugh. “Then obviously it was only a matter of time until I found out.”

Brooke gave a sardonic snort. “So Jan and Jackie kept their relationship a complete secret for about nine months but you instantly know about me and 'Ness within one?!”

“So it _is_ true!” Bianca smiled, happy to have confirmed what she had been suspecting. Brooke swallowed. 

“Well. We’re not ‘shacked up’ but yes, we’re seeing each other,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t betray how nervous she felt. Where the fuck was Bianca going here?

“That’s great. Lovely! And I’m happy for you both, I really am. It’s just…” Bianca trailed off, letting her gaze drop to the floor. “You know what it’s like at Number Ten. It gets busy, and stressful, and intense, and if we’re hiring somebody, we need to know, _really_ know, that they’re committed to the job. That there’s not any distractions going on. If you know what I’m saying.”

Brooke felt the panic rising in her head. At once she saw the job, _her_ job, the job she’d wanted in the building she’d wanted for so long slipping away from her. 

“No, of course! I mean, of course not. Me and Vanessa, it’s not...it’s not a serious thing, you know, it’s one of those things that’ll fizzle out after a while. I’m not...attached. Like that. I wouldn’t. You know, ‘Ness is nice, but...it’s not like that, Bianca, it really isn’t, my job is my job and I’d...I’d do anything to get into Number 10 and I don’t give a fuck how desperate it sounds.”

“Well, I’m not asking you to get down on your knees and beg! Don’t shit yourself,” Bianca laughed. “But as long as I have your assurance that this isn’t a big long-term thing then?”

“Oh no, no. It’s...about as short term as it gets!” Brooke gave an awkward laugh.

She knew she was lying through her teeth and she wondered how she’d deal with things when Bianca found out that her and Vanessa _were_ in fact serious, and that they were about to become the girlfriend kind of serious, but she could cross that bridge when she was sitting at a desk in Downing Street. 

“Good,” Bianca smiled briefly, before opening the door and exiting the cupboard. “See you tomorrow, Brooke.”

Brooke’s heart gave a leap. This was fucking incredible- she was going to ask Vanessa to be her girlfriend, and she was in the running for a job at Number Ten. It was like all her lucky days had come at once. Instantly, she walked quickly back to the press conference to tell Vanessa, but suddenly realised that it must have finished while she was talking to Bianca. She almost ran back to the department, her heart feeling as if it was about to take off as she ran up to Vanessa who was busy pulling her coat on and getting ready to leave. 

“‘Ness! ‘Ness, I just spoke to Bianca, and she told me that I’m on the shortlist to work at Number Ten! Can you believe it?!”

And then everything seemed to turn into a long, slow, painful violin glissando as Brooke realised that Vanessa was looking at her through the iciest stare that Brooke had seen fixed on her in a long time, and she instantly knew what had happened. 

The door to the resource room had been ajar.

“Vanessa-” she began, instantly trying to make amends, but Vanessa immediately jumped in in front of her. 

“Well, I’m real glad you’re happy, Brooke Lynn. The job clearly means a lot to you. I mean, you said yourself you’d do anything for it, an’ that’s been made obvious. I’m going home now,” she said, in a voice that made Brooke’s blood run cold. She’d never heard Vanessa talk like this, never in all her time of knowing her. But now that tone was being reserved for her and it made Brooke feel physically sick, fuck, _why_ had she told Bianca such a stupid fucking lie?

“‘Ness, please,” Brooke tried again, Vanessa simply looking at her emotionlessly. Brooke found herself hoping to see tears in Vanessa’s eyes, a clue that perhaps she still held some affection towards her and that everything could be talked out and fixed, but her eyes were cold and hard and Brooke felt all the optimism draining away from her body. “Everything I said was a big, massive lie just so that I could get that job, nothing I said was true at all. I don’t know what you heard, but-”

“I heard enough,” Vanessa said coldly, her voice seeming to be the only thing that Brooke could hear in the room, even though she wasn’t talking particularly loudly. The comms girls continued to talk amongst themselves mere feet away. “Well, I don't know, Brooke, but it all seemed like pretty impassioned lyin’ to me. I’m glad you can lie, I’m glad it comes so naturally to you. You’re clearly very good at it.”

Brooke stood frozen to the spot. She couldn’t move. Vanessa’s stare continued to freeze her whole body as she paused, then continued talking. 

“I remembered everything, Brooke. The night of Alyssa Edwards’ ball? I remembered every single fuckin’ thing. But you know why I pretended I’d forgotten? Because I thought you an’ me would’ve been a bad idea. We were friends, we worked together, there’s no way it could’ve worked. Even though I’ve had feelings for you since longer than I can remember, by the way. But no, I thought we would’ve been a bad idea, so I ignored my feelings. I wondered if you maybe felt the same way, an’ then it turned out that you did, an’ I was so happy. But I was right, it wasn’t a good idea. Me an’ you. So, uh, I’m going home, like I said. An’ I think it’s best that we don’t continue seeing each other, don’t you? Keep things professional. You’re good at that, Brooke. You’re good at your job, I’m glad it makes you happy. So, I’ll, um. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Vanessa grabbed her bag from on top of her desk and began to make her way past Brooke. Brooke, for her part, couldn’t find the words to say anything. What could she say? Anything she did say would have been completely useless, or would only have made things worse. Just as she reached Brooke, Vanessa turned around, and Brooke found her stupid heart hoping that maybe she’d take everything back, that she’d sigh and suggest a way they could fix things. Maybe that was the way forward. 

“‘Ness, we can fix this,” Brooke felt herself saying, the words feeling cheap as soon as she’d said them. Vanessa gave a slow, sarcastic smile that was filled with nothing but contempt. 

“You know, I can’t believe I allowed myself to fa-” Vanessa began, then trailed off as she looked to the floor, a flash of sadness crossing her face before she steadied herself and looked Brooke in the eye again. “Have a good night, Brooke Lynn.”

Brooke’s eyes stared into the same space Vanessa had been as she left, her footsteps slowly retreating. Brooke heard her shout a chirpy goodbye to the comms girls, a stark contrast of normality to the conversation that had just taken place. 

Blinking, Brooke took a long, shaky breath. She wasn’t a crier. She never cried. She was just really, really, really fucking upset, like someone had brutally forced a shard of glass through her ribcage. It dawned on her after a while that she must have been standing in that same spot beside Vanessa’s desk for minutes. Suddenly, she was struck with a feeling of having no idea of what to do. 

So she did what she could do: she walked slowly over to her desk, pulled on her coat as if she was sleepwalking, then began to make her way to the lifts to go home. As she walked past the comms girls, she heard Scarlet’s voice drift through the department. 

“Oh, fuck yes! I forgot I still had half a KitKat in this bag! I _knew_ today was going to be a good day.”

As she left the department, Brooke had an unbelievably powerful urge to turn the lights off behind her, to keep walking and never turn back, or to never stop.


	12. Double Insistence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie and Brooke struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered relationships. Brooke’s situation isn’t helped by the arrival of three new interns from Downing Street, one of whom seems to take a shine to Vanessa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait huns.......hope u all enjoy xo

Brooke was never one to get dramatic, but she was pretty sure the last two weeks had been the worst of her life.

She’d tried phoning Vanessa countless times to no answer. Texts went unread. She knew she was being a pathetic mess when she took solace in the fact that she hadn’t blocked her number, as if being one level up from a random creepy guy at a bar was anything to be proud of. Still, to Brooke it was the hope that maybe someday soon Vanessa would text her again, or call her again, and say that she’d been thinking and the whole situation wasn’t one to lose their relationship over, and Brooke would finally hold her again and everything would be alright. 

But it hadn’t happened yet and it hadn’t happened at work either, and every day for the past two weeks Brooke had felt as if she was walking into a chest freezer whenever she arrived at Dosac. The icy stares from the comms girls, who of course had been told every last detail (probably over wine, she was guessing) compounded by the frostiness Vanessa exuded from her from 8am until the day was over made Brooke wonder how she hadn’t yet contracted hypothermia and died. 

Yvie was the only one that attempted to see where Brooke was coming from, one day when the entire atmosphere had become too much and Brooke had had to sneak off into the kitchen - not to cry, because she wasn’t a crier, but just to compose herself in case she actually did happen to squeeze a few tears out. Yvie had walked in by chance and given Brooke a sad smile and an awkward hug which had made Brooke’s throat tight, and Brooke had explained everything from her side of the story. Yvie had listened as she’d made the office teas, and when Brooke was finished she’d concluded that she saw where Brooke was coming from, and she understood why she had lied to Bianca, but it didn’t excuse the fact that the actual act of the lying was a terrible fucking mistake and Brooke should never have done it. Brooke knew that, of course she knew that, but hearing someone else articulate what she’d already beaten herself up for about a thousand times made things seem even worse, and Brooke went home at lunchtime that day. 

Not that Jackie cared. Not that Jackie seemed to care about much these days, even though her new policy was going well; house construction of the new communities had started already but it only seemed to serve to remind Jackie of Jan’s good organisation in getting the contracts with the builders up and running and starting as soon as they could. Every time Jackie walked past Jan’s empty chair in the office Brooke could hear her sigh. Her desk remained the exact same as she’d left it that fateful day as if everything was encased in amber, and she hadn’t returned to collect anything so Brooke guessed that everything was fine for her. 

She had to guess, because she didn’t really know. She’d texted Jan, even tried phoning her countless times, but she only got left on read or sent to voicemail. Judging by the state Jackie would arrive most mornings: makeupless, hair not having even seen a brush, and wearing glasses in favour of her usual contact lenses, it made Brooke think that Jan didn’t have much time for either of them. And that was fair enough- she was obviously busy- but Brooke still missed and needed her friend. Now more than ever.

Walking into work on a sunny Monday morning, it made Brooke want to feel happy and upbeat. She still found herself absent-mindedly planning things for her and Vanessa to do even though now they would never get to do them. _After work we could get ice cream and go watch people get vertigo attacks on the Eye. Or hire Boris Bikes, cycle around Westminster and try to mow down members of the opposition._ She didn’t know if it comforted her or made her feel even worse. 

She arrived into the office to the radio silence of the comms girls and Vanessa wearing a new baby blue trouser suit.

“Mornin’,” Vanessa said first, her voice stony as it usually was these days.

“Morning. How are you?” Brooke asked tentatively, sitting at her desk and switching her computer on. She looked up to see the tailend of Vanessa rolling her eyes.

“Fine,” Vanessa said frostily, then picked up a folder from her desk and put it on Brooke’s. “Bianca phoned an’ said she wants the figures of all new arrivals that’ve been granted British citizenship from 1985 to present so...here’s 1995 onwards for you to do and I’ll take the rest. I’ve gotta go get Jackie from downstairs.”

Brooke’s heart sank. Reduced to exchanging pleasantries that weren’t even pleasant with a girl that used to be one of her best friends, never mind her girlfriend. It was depressing. 

Jackie arrived mere minutes later without the spring in her step that she usually had. Brooke made a mental note to check with reception if her bodyguard had dropped her off at the door this morning and not simply the pavement outside work as he had done yesterday, which was far too careless, Brooke had chastised him. Jackie seemed unbothered about the impending threat to her life, however, as she made her way to her office. Brooke noticed that the black dress that she wore which used to flatter her curves now hung baggy in places it hadn’t before, indicating the amount of weight she had lost over the past couple of weeks through not eating. Her face was pale due to the lack of makeup on it, and her glasses had slid down her nose. There was one positive though- she seemed to have been to get a haircut and her hair looked neat and presentable, albeit a little shorter than it had been. 

“Morning, Jackie,” she smiled tightly. “Nice hair.”

“Thanks. I had to get it sorted out, it was a nightmare. Apparently that happens if you don’t wash your hair for six days. No, I just thought...new hair for a new girlfriendless me. Sorry. That was a crap joke. Oh wait, it wasn’t really a joke, it was just me being sad. The real joke here is my love life. There, that one was funny,” she spieled, her voice deadpan. Straightening up, she cleared her throat. “Right remember, ladies, that these interns are arriving from number 10 today. So make sure there’s space for them.”

“Should we, um,” Vanessa asked hesitantly. “Should we clear, um.”

She gave a vague gesture at Jan’s desk. Jackie frowned. 

“Why would we need to clear Jan’s desk, Vanessa?” she asked, at once accusatory. Vanessa’s mouth dropped open a little, taken-aback. 

“No, I mean we don’t- I just thought-”

“Well un-think what you just thought. She’ll come back. She’ll at least have to come back for her antihistamines. They’re in her desk drawer and the pollen count is through the roof today. And her special lip balm from Kiehls is in there too, and she’ll get dry lips if she doesn’t put it on,” Jackie babbled, Brooke’s heart going out to her. She was behaving a little bit as if she was bereaved, but Brooke supposed that a breakup was a kind of grief. She’d not really had a chance to talk to Jackie about everything yet, too wrapped up in her own heartbreak to think much about her boss’. Perhaps today she should try to be there for her, Brooke supposed. 

“Of course, Jackie. I won’t touch anythin’ on her desk,” Vanessa reassured her, her voice soft and in turn making Jackie sigh. 

“Just piss Jaida and Adore off, move them into Richmond Terrace. It’s only a week for Christ’s sake,” Jackie gave a blithe swipe of her hand as she turned and walked into her office. 

Brooke shrugged, tuning into the figures in front of her instead. If she was being honest she’d forgotten about the interns arriving, so much had been going on in her own life. It happened every year or so- Bianca would drop off a couple of graduate interns from Number 10 into different departments and let the ministers deal with them for a week. Sometimes they were good. Sometimes they were clearly shit and weren’t at all cut out for politics. Most of the time it was the latter. Usually Brooke worked around them and didn’t really mind them being there, but this week she really could have been doing without them. 

Sighing at her inability to concentrate, she looked up and briefly caught eyes with Vanessa. Frozen, Brooke gave a smile over to her. Vanessa looked disarmed as if she was about to smile back, then her face set into a stony glare as she looked away from Brooke. 

Looking back at the folder in front of her, Brooke concluded she really could have done without work at all.

***

It was around 11 o’clock when Bianca finally showed up to the department, walking confidently into the department with three twentysomethings trailing behind her. The first walked with her head held high and with only a slight tremble in her step- a petite girl with a huge mane of dark, coily hair and a daintily highlighted nose wearing an immaculate white pencil skirt and suit jacket combo. As Brooke stood in front of Jackie’s office beside Vanessa and Nina, she found herself becoming hopeful- this girl actually inspired some sort of confidence in her. 

The second girl not so much, Brooke thought, as she watched her go over on her heel slightly while walking towards them. Her shining blonde hair was curled neatly and her navy blue shift dress with its white shirt collar made her look like a trained professional, but the anxious expression on her face and the red flush already hitting her cheeks suggested otherwise.

The third was another young woman, late as opposed to early twenties, Brooke guessed. She didn’t look as nervous as the girl in front of her, and appeared to be taking everything in with composure. She had two too-big wings of eyeliner at the edge of each of her brown eyes but could get away with it with her smart grey suit and neatly hairsprayed dark waves of hair. Brooke had to acknowledge she was attractive, but only begrudgingly so. 

As Bianca reached them, she motioned for the three to line up in front of the Dosac ladies and Brooke felt momentarily as if she was on a weird TV dating show. Bianca turned to Jackie and immediately started talking.

“I’m afraid I can’t stay for long, Jackie, there’s a whole new world of piss going on at Downing Street regarding the by-election that I’m sure these three are delighted to be getting away from. But ladies, this is Blair, Vixen and Kameron. Treat them nicely, because they’re just babies really, and if they ask to go to the toilet let them go. Before they go home make sure they’ve got their jumpers and lunchboxes, and remind them when they have to bring in their PE kits,” Bianca deadpanned, the blonde girl laughing politely while the black girl beside her rolled her eyes. The other girl wasn’t registering Bianca’s words, Brooke noticed. Instead, she was looking at Brooke. As Brooke met her gaze however, she saw that she hadn’t been looking at her after all, but at who was beside her. Brooke turned her head. Vanessa. She felt her skin begin to prickle. 

“I’ll be back to pick them up at the end of the day. Play nice, children,” Bianca said by way of a goodbye, as she swept out of the department and left the Dosac girls to meet the new interns. Trying to ignore the older girl, Brooke made a beeline for whichever of the others would talk to her first. Jackie had descended on Blair, so Brooke introduced herself to Vixen. 

“Hey. I’m Brooke. It’s good to have you,” she smiled tightly, shaking the other girl’s hand. Vixen smiled back at her. Brooke had noticed she hadn’t reacted well to Bianca’s words. “Don’t mind Bianca. She’s very...she’s very Bianca. You’ll get less bother from her here than you would have at Number 10.”

“I hate the bitch,” Vixen replied, her blunt tone taking Brooke aback a bit. “Blair fucked up a bit of photocopying she’d made her do once and the bitch went fucking crazy at her. Totally out of proportion reaction. I mean, she always seems like she has something to be mad about? I couldn’t go through life like that.”

“Well, that’s her way I guess,” Brooke shrugged, torn between wanting to defend the spin doctor but also slightly agreeing with Vixen. “But as I said, you’ll see her a lot less now you’re here. And I’m sure you’ll be amazing here too.”

Vixen gave a guilty grimace. “Just to let you know...I have no interest in social affairs. I put down that I wanted to work with Shea Coulee over in Defence, but for some reason I got dumped here with Lil’ Miss Bodybuilder over there.”

Vixen motioned to Kameron who was busy talking to Nina, her eyes darting every so often to Vanessa. Brooke narrowed her eyes at her. 

“She seems…” Brooke started, then remembered her professionalism and shut up. Vixen smirked and finished her sentence. 

“Like she’s hot and she knows it? Yep, that’s pretty much about the size of it. And hey, if the size of her brain was the same size as her biceps then maybe she’d be a little more competent.” 

Brooke found herself exploding with laughter. She’d known Vixen for all of about one second, but she immediately warmed to her now that she knew she was skeptical of Kameron. Clearly pleased that she had Brooke onside, Vixen carried on.

“Literally the only saving grace of my placement here is Blair. She’s great, you’ll love her,” she smiled over at the other girl, whose face was lit up as she spoke to Jackie. Brooke did a small double-take as she looked at Vixen’s face, thinking that she could do without another workplace lesbian crush in her life. Suddenly wanting to tear herself away from the situation, Brooke smiled. 

“Well, I bet you’re both going to be really valuable here,” she said with an air of finality. “It was good to meet you, Vixen.”

Just then, she noticed Kameron making her way to where Vanessa stood. Brooke immediately launched herself towards the two of them as if she’d been physically catapulted. She instantly pushed herself between the two of them, holding out a hand that she hoped couldn’t seem accusatory. 

“Brooke Lynn. Nice to meet you,” she said simply, meeting the other girl’s gaze. Her brown eyes looked slightly surprised, as if she’d been met by a challenger. Despite her shock, she smiled amicably and took Brooke’s hand. 

“Brooke Lynn? That’s an interesting one, never heard that before,” she said pleasantly, Brooke’s hackles immediately rising at the fact her name was being met as if it was a new knock knock joke. “I’m Kameron, nice to meet you. And this is?” 

To Brooke’s dismay, she gave her hand a brief, tight shake and then shifted her gaze to Vanessa, holding out her hand. Vanessa was smiling in a sort of coy way, and Brooke felt her heart sink. She’d never looked at her that way. Or had she? Brooke couldn’t remember, and she hated herself for it. 

“I’m Vanessa. Good to meet you,” she smiled, her eyes widening a little as Kameron took her hand as if to shake it but instead used it to pull her in and give her a quick kiss on the cheek. 

“Now, don’t tell me Bianca has you locked away in this office all day? Is this the department reserved for models? How come I’ve never seen you before?” she asked her, the light lilt to her soft voice only adding to the charm offensive and making Brooke wonder if there was a company in existence that made personalised, face-shaped dartboards. 

Vanessa gave a laugh that didn’t have any hint of shyness or reservation to it. Instead it was self-assured and confident, and Brooke felt as if she was in some kind of horrendous rom-com. “Because it’s prolly hard to see anything with your head so far up your own ass.”

Kameron still hadn’t let go of her hand. Vanessa hadn’t let go of hers either. She was laughing in a mock-hurt manner. “Ouch, okay. A girl who gives as good as she gets, alright. I can deal with that.”

“What makes you think you’re gonna have any dealings with me?” Vanessa replied, flirtation dripping from every word she spoke. Kameron actually fucking winked at her. 

“Well, because I didn’t get to where I am now without taking on a few challenges,” she replied, finally, miraculously, letting go of Vanessa’s hand. For the first time since Brooke had spoken to her she looked back at her, giving her a quick up-and-down glance. “Well, I best have a chat with Jackie and see what she wants me to do here. But it was nice meeting you, Vanessa. I hope I’m going to see you a lot more often while I’m here.”

Vanessa gave her a cheeky smile as she turned to leave. Then, as if she’d forgotten, Kameron addressed Brooke with a small smirk on her face. “Good to meet you, Staten Island.”

Brooke actually felt as if her blood had been put inside a kettle with the switch flicked on. Vanessa was smiling after Kameron, then she gave a laugh. 

“She’s confident.”

“She’s cocky,” Brooke glared at Kameron’s retreating back as she took Jackie’s hand and shook it. “With the emphasis on ‘cock’.”

“Hmm. Wonder why you didn’t seem to like her,” Vanessa said coldly, giving her a side glance as she wandered over to Vixen to introduce herself. 

***

It was only day two, and the interns were getting on Brooke’s last nerve already. 

Well- that was unfair. Not all of them. Vixen was great- she had already taken on every bit of advice that the girls had given her, read over her brief that Nina had supplied her with thoroughly, and she had taken to answering press calls and getting minor jobs done. She was clearly going to be a great success when she inevitably rose to the top. 

And Blair wasn’t all that bad either, now that Brooke thought about it. She was relentlessly upbeat even in the face of Brooke’s horrific mood and tried her best to understand the workings of the department, even if Stevie Wonder himself could see that she hadn’t a fucking clue what was going on. Vixen would always somehow appear at her desk however, showing her how to do things and explaining things slowly and patiently, and in the short time Brooke had known them both she had concluded that they surely must be together. Vixen wasn’t the only one that seemed to dote on Blair; Nina had taken a shine to the younger girl, almost seeing her as a sort of daughter-figure, and Blair seemed to be the only intern that had teas made for her.

No, it wasn’t Vixen or Blair that was pissing Brooke off. That title went to the third intern, the one-woman smarmy army herself, Kameron. She wished she knew why she’d developed such a strong dislike of her in the space of a day. It wasn’t because she seemed to spend every moment she could chatting to Vanessa instead of doing work. It wasn’t even because every time she looked at Vanessa, the other girl already seemed to be gazing over at Kameron on the rare occasion that she was working. It wasn’t either of those things. It was probably because she’d got her name wrong on the first day. That was definitely the reason. Every time she walked past her desk and got a whiff of the overbearing scent of Gucci Bamboo that emanated from her, rage seemed to bubble under her skin and she couldn’t really pinpoint exactly why. 

The rage wasn’t really going away now that they were all sat around the meeting table, ready for the interns’ first departmental meeting. Jackie sat at the helm of the table as usual, and Brooke sat at her right side. Kameron filled the seat at her left (the seat that Jan used to occupy) and Vanessa sat in the chair close to her side. Vixen and Blair sat close together too on Brooke’s side of the table, and Nina sat at the end, her notepad ready. 

“So, Vixen, Blair, Kameron, I know you’ll probably have sat in on a million meetings in Number 10, but our departmentals are a bit different,” Jackie started, her face friendly and apologetic. 

Brooke smirked self-depreciatively. “Namely because nothing gets done, one of our advisors ran away to pursue a MP career in the by-election, our senior press officer is about as out the loop as you could get and-”

“- our other advisor’s an ass,” Vanessa finished, giving Brooke a look that she couldn’t quite read. If she squinted, she could perhaps have interpreted it as flirtatious. Or perhaps it was for Kameron’s benefit. 

“Sounds a lot like Number 10 to me,” Vixen smiled lazily. Satisfied, Jackie continued. 

“Okay, the main item on our agenda is policy. New Communities is going well but, as Brooke mentioned, there’s a by-election looming. If I can push just one more bit of policy through, it might help the party win some more voters. So, policy ideas. Let’s have them.”

“Um...pay the unemployed to drive ambulances,” Nina suggested, blithely waving her pen in the air. Brooke glared at her then looked to Jackie, who was giving her a confused glance. 

“Yes, that...I was really meaning ideas from advisors, Nina.”

Blair noticed that she looked put out and smiled at her. “I thought it was a good idea.”

“You once thought carrots were a fruit,” Kameron piped up, the comment blatantly designed to make himself look good. Brooke could have sworn she heard a snort from Vanessa, but when she turned to look at her, her face gave nothing away. Frowning at Kameron, she shrugged. 

“I mean. They make juice with them, so it’s an easy mistake to make,” she said flatly, making sure to look Kameron in the eye in an attempt to assert her authority. A small gasp from Blair made Brooke break the eye contact before she had a chance to suss out the expression on her face. 

“That was _exactly_ my reasoning too!” the intern smiled excitedly, Brooke failing to miss the look Vixen was giving Blair which was affectionate bordering on loving. 

“Policy ideas, people, come on,” Jackie sighed despairingly. 

“Ringfencing of funds for primary school breakfast clubs,” Vanessa suggested, Brooke wincing in response. 

“It’s very Phi Phi O’Hara-esque and extremely fucking questionable,” she explained, frowning and receiving a frown back from Vanessa. 

“Well at least I’m comin’ up with some actual ideas,” she muttered. Brooke sighed. 

“Okay, what about um...free tampons in secondary schools,” she shrugged, Vanessa momentarily looking impressed. 

“Something that doesn’t cost money,” Jackie raised her eyebrows and pushed her glasses up her nose. 

“What about a partnership between nursing homes and maternity wards, where the elderly knit little blankets for newborn babies?” Blair suggested, an enthusiastic smile on her face. 

“Christ,” Brooke coughed out, looking for a moment at Vixen. She laughed. 

“We always say Human Resources must have found her lost in Disneyland before she came to Downing Street,” she laughed affectionately, Blair pouting a little before Vixen took her hand and squeezed it, laughing.

“ _You_ always say that,” Blair smiled, her voice quiet as if Vixen was the only one meant to hear it. 

“Free teabags,” Nina piped up again. Jackie pushed some hair out of her face in exasperation. 

“Everyone has to carry a plastic bag? Oh fuck no, even Nina has to think that’s shit,” Brooke exhaled noisily, surprising herself with how crap her ideas had become. 

“Free bottle of wine for every new mother,” Vixen deadpanned, Brooke struggling to tell if she was joking or not. 

Vanessa looked at the ceiling. “Free coffins to enable working-class families to-”

“The word ‘free’ is hereby banned,” Jackie put her head in her hands.

“Well, how about we go one better?” Kameron suddenly piped up, Vanessa’s eyes immediately darting to her and leaving Brooke feeling like she’d been punched in the stomach. “Instead of something that doesn’t cost us money, how about something that’s going to make us money?”

“What do you have in mind?” Jackie questioned, her head tilting to the side in interest. 

“Well, maybe something like…” Kameron paused, clearly trying to collect her words. “You’ve got all these rich bitches, right? Living in these massive houses. With all these rooms. Only there’s only ever one or two people that live there. Old people that are sitting rattling about in what used to be their family homes, and they could be downsizing, but they haven’t? And there’s other families, ones that need those rooms, ones that could do with those houses, that are sitting with five kids sharing the one room. So how about we tax the people that have the spare rooms, make some money for us, and we could put it into funds for New Communities- or we could spend it on council houses or the benefit system to show the doubters of New Communities that we’re looking after our own and not just the refugee kids?”

Brooke frowned. It was a shit idea. It had to be. What the fuck did an intern, who hadn’t been in the game for any length of time, know about policies like that? Immediately, Brooke thought hard and racked her brain for holes to pick in the idea. Looking to gauge Jackie’s reaction, she was dismayed to find that she looked pretty impressed.

“That’s actually...quite good. I can see it working. And I love the idea of putting it into council housing funds, that’s excellent PR for me,” she smiled at Kameron. Kameron wasn’t looking at her though- her gaze had moved to Vanessa, who had an impressed smile on her face. 

“Surely that’s ridiculous though, the idea that people have already paid for these houses and now they’re getting taxed more for them?” Brooke jumped in, the jealousy burning at her heart making her eager to find fault with the idea. 

“Well if they can afford a house of that size they can afford a minute tax increase,” Vanessa challenged her, Brooke dismayed at the fact she was taking Kameron’s side. Her face softened as she looked at Kameron. “Which is what it would be, right? I mean we’re talkin’ two percent, three percent? Or were you thinkin’ of it as more of a one-off, Robin Hood type thing?”

Kameron smiled back at her. “God, I love a girl that knows her economics.”

“Well I do have a degree in it,” Vanessa bit back playfully. 

“Oh, she reads books too?” Kameron joked, Brooke fixing her with what she hoped was a literal death stare. 

“If we could steer things away from First Dates territory,” Jackie raised her eyebrows at the two of them, Vanessa looking to the floor and blushing. “I would actually like to move forward with this, Kameron. It’s a good idea.”

“You can’t be fucking serious,” Brooke’s mouth dropped open, ignoring Kameron turning in her chair and looking at her. “You’re just going to take the idea of an intern and actually make it into a policy?”

“Well in the absence of any decent ideas from my actual advisors, it seems I don’t have much choice,” Jackie’s eyebrows shot up over the rims of her glasses as distaste coated her words. 

Brooke could have sworn she saw Kameron smirk. 

“Right! I’m tired, heartbroken, and starving, so I suggest we talk more about this after I’ve consumed a sub the size of a small child. Nina, can you go and get one of the girls out there to go to Subway for me? And actually, get me a cookie or ten while you're at it,” Jackie ordered, signalling the meeting was over. Brooke’s heart panged at her joke-that-wasn’t-really-a-joke, and it reminded her to check her phone to see if there was anything from Jan. 

Still nothing.

As people started leaving the room, Brooke felt compelled to stay and talk to Jackie, to see how she was coping. Maybe she could offer advice but it was more likely that she would just be listening to her release all the pent-up sadness she’d been bottling up for so long. Looking out into the department, however, she saw Kameron leaning on Vanessa’s desk as she spoke to her. All of a sudden Brooke completely changed her mind, making a beeline for the desk. She could hear snippets of their conversation as she approached. Vanessa was now the one speaking and Kameron was listening intently. 

“...yeah, I did three years at LSE and then a postgrad at Cambridge so, as it turns out, I _do_ read books.”

“Clearly,” Kameron smirked, then bit her lip. “Listen, this is going to seem forward, but...do you want to tell me more about these millions of degrees you have over lunch?”

Before Vanessa could answer, Brooke had reached them both and was opening her mouth. 

“Oh, shit, lunch sounds great! I’m down for lunch. Hey Vixen, Blair!” she called over, fully aware that she was behaving like a massive asshole and yet doing absolutely nothing to stop it. “You guys want to grab lunch with us?”

Twenty minutes of suffering under a permanent glare from Vanessa later, Brooke was standing in a busy Wagamamas with the three new interns and Vanessa, waiting for a table. When approached by a waitress she asked for a table for five, which was met with a grimace. 

“Ooh, I’m sorry, I won’t have one of those for another twenty minutes?” she said apologetically. Vanessa immediately stepped in. 

“Could you do a two and a three?” 

“I could manage that for you,” the waitress shrugged, Vanessa immediately grabbing Kameron’s hand and pulling her beside her.

“Great! We’ll take the two.” 

Before Brooke could speak, the waitress was leading the two of them away. Vanessa still hadn’t let go of Kameron’s hand. 

“Sheesh, what’s her fucking problem?” Vixen piped up. Brooke turned to face her and noticed firstly that her face was screwed up, and secondly that she and Blair were holding hands. 

“It’s...complex. I could tell you guys about it over lunch?” 

Brooke supposed it was character development; opening up about everything that had happened between her and Vanessa to two relative strangers that she’d known for all of two days. She found it cathartic, though, to talk through everything to two people who didn’t really know her and didn’t really know Vanessa, and by the time she was finished she did admittedly feel a bit better. She’d watched with amusement as the difference between the two girls was displayed in front of her as they reacted to her story; Blair’s face like a comedy sketch as she gasped and _ooh_ -ed and _aah_ -ed at every new development while Vixen’s face very rarely changed. 

“It probably all paints me as a total fucking idiot, but I guess if the shoe fits,” Brooke shrugged, taking a sip of the iced tea which sat in front of her. With a pang she looked over to the booth that Kameron and Vanessa were sharing. The two of them were laughing loudly, Vanessa tucking her hair behind her ears. 

“I don’t think it’s idiotic at all. You were going after the job you wanted while trying to keep the girl you wanted. Makes sense,” Vixen shrugged. “If Vanessa can’t see the situation for what it was then that’s her problem. She’s the one that’s being the idiot, not you.”

Blair had followed Brooke’s eyes. “Do you think she actually likes Kam or do you think she’s just flirting with her to make you jealous?”

“Hard to say,” Brooke sighed, pulling her gaze back to the girls in front of her. “Whichever one it is, it’s making me feel like a total dick.”

“Oh, don’t feel that way,” Blair frowned, reaching forward and patting Brooke’s hand. 

“Remember, it’s impossible to be the biggest dick in the room when Kameron Michaels is in there with you,” Vixen smirked, earning herself a scolding look from Blair. 

“Vix, don’t,” she chastised her. “She has her moments, I’m sure she’s sweet underneath it all.”

“She’s a bitch is what she is.”

Brooke was intrigued. Vixen’s dislike of Kameron seemed to be more than superficial. “What has she done to be so...hated? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Vixen rolled her eyes hard. “She’s fake. Fake as fuck. Only talks to you when she needs something from you, blanks you the rest of the time. She’s so clearly looking to get ahead, which...fine, we all are, you know? But the way she goes about it is sly and underhand. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t at Dosac to cause some sort of sabotage job.” 

“Fuck. That’s shitty,” Brooke’s eyes widened. 

“When Blair joined, she was her bestie for ages. Buddied up with her and got close with her and then just dropped her when she realised that she wasn’t one of Bianca’s favourites,” Vixen continued, looking protectively at Blair.

“We were never besties,” Blair muttered with embarrassment, then suddenly backtracked. “But no, she did kind of drop me when she realised I wasn’t exactly employee of the month over at number ten.”

“But now you’ve got me. And unfortunately you’re stuck with me,” Vixen said bluntly, taking a swift drink from her can of coke and earning a smile from Blair.

Brooke smiled at the both of them. “So how long have you guys been together?” 

Blair’s face blanched and Vixen very nearly did a spit-take from her coke can. Brooke’s eyes widened.

“Sorry- I just assumed that-”

“Oh, no, it’s okay! But yeah we’re not...we’re not together! We’re just best friends,” Blair smiled sweetly, looking to Brooke and then at Vixen, whose smile was only slightly forced. 

“Bestie vibes only,” Vixen said dryly, Blair’s face lighting up as she laughed. Brooke wasn’t completely convinced, but she moved the conversation along anyway. 

“Well, never get involved with anyone from work. It didn’t go very well for me.”

“Why’ve you just given up?” Vixen asked her, her eyes suddenly judgemental and making Brooke feel awkward. “If you liked her that much, you should try to win her back. That’s what I’d do.”

“Oh, that’s so romantic,” Blair gushed, Vixen’s cheeks going slightly pink. 

“Honestly, I’ve tried,” Brooke leant back in her chair and stole another look at the table that Vanessa was sitting at. It appeared that she’d gone to the toilet, probably to re-apply lipgloss or something similar.

“Not hard enough,” Vixen leant forward, her face suddenly conspiratorial. “You need to really fight. Get her back. If only just so that we can see Kameron’s face falling when she realises that she’s not some fucking Greek Goddess.”

Brooke bit her lip as she glanced again to Vanessa’s empty seat. “She’s at the toilet now. I should go and tell her about Kameron.”

“Yes! Tell her what she’s really like, she’s bound to be put off by that,” Blair encouraged her excitedly. Brooke frowned a little, nodded, and stood up, making sure to walk past Kameron and glare as she made her way to the toilets. 

She was playing with her phone and didn’t see her, but Brooke was buoyed by her power move nonetheless. 

Just as she’d expected, she found Vanessa standing at the mirror with a mascara wand, her hand raised to her eyes which darted to the door and instantly narrowed as she saw who had come in. 

“‘Ness-”

“Don’t fuckin’ _‘Ness_ me,” she snapped, putting the wand back in the tube and averting her eyes. “You’ve been behavin’ like a grade A dick since Kam arrived at the department. Or should I say even more of a dick than usual?”

Brooke gave a small sigh. “I guess I deserve that.”

“Yeah. You do,” Vanessa said awkwardly, looking at the mirror and then finally glancing at Brooke. “What d’you want anyway?”

“Okay look, I know I’ve been rude to Kameron but she’s not what you think, ‘Ness, she’s not what she seems,” she heard herself pleading in desperation. Vanessa gave a smirk and folded her arms, leaning back against the wall. 

“Oh, this should be good. What, she’s responsible for war crimes in the West Indies? She’s wanted for animal abuse in seven countries? She comes up with better policies than you?”

“She’s fake,” Brooke interrupted her, her voice measured but angry. How could she be so defensive of her after two days? “Vixen and Blair just told me everything. She’s only out for herself, buddies up with people and then drops them when she’s used them to get ahead. You’re going to get hurt.”

Vanessa tipped her head back and laughed callously. “Brooke Lynn Hytes is warning _me_ that _I’m_ going to get hurt?! We are through the looking glass now, folks, fuck me!”

“Oh, so you’re telling me you don’t care if Kameron breaks your heart?” Brooke laughed in disbelief.

“Well I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself. Done it before, I can do it again,” Vanessa gave a sarcastic laugh of her own and stepped forward, making as if to leave but ending up right in front of Brooke. “Admit it- you can’t stand her because she’s shown an interest in me and I’m showing an interest back, and you can’t bear it when I’m not fawning over you.”

“No, I can’t stand her because she’s a stuck-up ice queen who thinks she’s better than everyone else, and somehow that’s attractive to you!” she scowled, sighing suddenly as she met Vanessa’s eyes. She could feel herself starting to talk as if it was her last chance to ever get her on her own. “But of course I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous, ‘Ness, I mean I still fucking...care about you. And I miss you, and I wish I’d never said all that shit to Bianca but you know that, and I just wish we could move forward and put all this crap behind us because it’s fucking killing me.”

“Brooke Lynn…” Vanessa exhaled, looking to the ceiling and shaking her head. Sensing her moment of weakness, Brooke continued. 

“And I know you still care about me too. And I know for sure there’s a part of you that’s making all this effort with Kameron to make me jealous, and it’s working. I want you back, and I know you want to come back, so fuck it, why don’t we just try again?”

They were close to each other and Vanessa’s eyes were lowered to the floor as if she really was reconsidering. Brooke was so caught up in the moment and truly believed she had a chance that she suddenly took Vanessa’s chin, raised it, and kissed her, hoping it would bring Vanessa round, hoping it would make her completely fall for her again, and Brooke couldn’t measure the amount she’d missed Vanessa’s soft lips on hers and-

The shove came out of nowhere. Although if Brooke was being honest, she supposed she deserved it. Vanessa’s face was thunderous as she glared at Brooke, making her way to leave. 

“The sooner you realise you’re not God’s fuckin’ gift to girls, the better,” she hissed at her, before opening the bathroom door and leaving. 

Brooke looked at herself in the mirror. Her pupils were blown from lust and her face was beetroot red from the embarrassment. 

“That went well,” she muttered to herself, rubbing her neck and standing there, alone.

***

Brooke arrived the next day with a renewed sense of fight. She’d spent the rest of yesterday embarrassed, not even able to touch her pad thai as she explained what had happened to Vixen and Blair, and she had gone back to the department with a red face and had quietly worked on the citizenship stats until she went home. 

Not today, though, Brooke resolved. Today would be different. Today was the day that she was back to bossing things at work. She had spent all night coming up with stats that showed why Kameron’s spare-bedroom tax was a fucking catastrophic idea, and she was prepared to land them on Jackie’s desk with a thud as soon as she got through the door. There was no way in hell that policy was happening, not if she could help it. 

Her new-found determination didn’t just stop at work. If Vanessa was allowed to flirt and make Brooke jealous, then Brooke was going to do it right back. She had deliberately dressed in a hot pink tartan skirt and low-cut white buttoned shirt she’d once worn to dinner with Vanessa, and at the time she hadn’t missed how the other girl’s pupils became blown and her mouth had dropped open in admiration, the compliments flowing from her lips like the wine they’d drunk. Brooke had blow-dried her hair out so that it was sleek and shining, and she’d woken up half an hour early to do her makeup. Vanessa was right, she had been behaving like an asshole, but this asshole was not going down without a fight. 

She strode into the office with her head held high, despite the fact she was twenty minutes late and Jackie would almost definitely already be in. If there was ever a time to be late, however, it was when Jackie was pining after Jan and cared about very little. On her way up to the office in the lift, she checked her hair one last time before stepping out and trotting her way inside.

The first person to notice her was Yvie (the only one who still took the time to say good morning to her anymore) who lifted her head from her desk and stared at her with wide eyes. 

“Holy shit, Brooke, you look hot as hell today,” she said, Brooke laughing a little at her lack of subtlety. 

“Thanks, Yves. Figured I needed some new outfits for work, so I just treated myself last night when I got home.”

“You look like the bitch from Clueless,” Yvie continued, Brooke allowing herself to cast her eyes to Vanessa’s desk. She wished she had her phone out to capture what she saw- Vanessa, who had obviously just been talking to Kameron, had her mouth hanging open, her jaw slack, and her eyes almost staring out of her head. It was exactly what Brooke had wanted to happen. Kameron, for her part, looked mildly impressed, if a little pissed off that Vanessa’s attention had been taken. 

Brooke calmly walked to her seat and sat down, bringing out the massive poly pocket full of statistics and articles from her bag and firing up her computer. Looking out of the corner of her eye she saw Jackie in her office, scrolling through her phone and looking bored. She decided to strike while the iron was hot. Jumping up from her desk, she grabbed the poly pocket and knocked on the door, hardly waiting for a “come in” before she burst inside. Jackie looked up from her phone and raised an unimpressed eyebrow. 

“You look like a 13 year old trying to get into a nightclub.”

“And good morning to you too. Jesus, what is that smell?” Brooke screwed up her nose, looking around the office for the offending odour. 

“Most of the footlong sub from yesterday. It’s in the bin,” Jackie gestured lethargically. Brooke frowned and sat in the seat in front of her. 

“Jackie, you need to eat something.”

“What? I managed most of the cookies and I’m still drinking coffee. That’s like...vitamins, right?” Jackie rolled her eyes as if she was an unimpressed teenager getting nagged by a parent. “Why are you in here anyway, Brooke Lynn?”

Just as she’d envisioned, Brooke slapped the poly pocket onto Jackie’s desk. “That is about 26 A4 pages full of numbers and stats as to why that spare room tax is the worst idea since…fuck it, it’s too early, I can’t come up with putdowns.”

“Brooke, it’s too late,” Jackie laughed humourlessly. “It’s going ahead. Press conference on Friday.”

Brooke had never been closer to flipping an actual table. “What the _fuck_ , Jackie?!”

“I had my meeting with the PM this morning- not that you’d know, because you were late,” Jackie gave her a stern look from across the table. “And I brought up the policy with him. He said it was exactly the kind of thing we should be doing. So it’s going ahead.”

“That’s not a green light, Jackie, and you know it. _Should_ is not equivalent to _yes_.”

Jackie screwed up her face. “Yes it is! If someone says to you _we should do this_ , it’s approval! It’s them saying yes!”

Brooke threw herself back in the chair, irritated. Jackie’s gaze softened as she saw how annoyed she was. 

“Look, Brooke. Would I be launching this policy if I hadn’t spent all of last night researching it myself? I know what it entails, I know of the drawbacks. It’s still a good idea. I know you’re pissed because Kameron came up with it and she’s the devil incarnate to you right now, but I’m going ahead with it. Nina is phoning the treasury.”

Brooke gave a heavy sigh. Just then, there was a knock on the door. She could see Bianca’s wide eyes staring in through the glass, and Jackie gave a call for her to come in. 

“Morning, all. How are things? Please don’t tell me if anything’s gone wrong, I’m at the point where I’d rather not know,” she said, sinking into the chair beside Brooke. Jackie seemed to wake up a little upon the arrival of her boss. 

“Quite the opposite, actually. We’re launching a new policy on Friday. Cleared it with the PM. Treasury’s being phoned. It’s going ahead.”

Bianca raised her eyebrows, impressed. “Cleared it with the PM? Very nice. What is it?”

“It’s a spare room tax. Taxing the rich in their big houses to raise money for less well-off families. Kameron thought of it,” Jackie shrugged. Bianca looked out at the office only to see the girl in question leaning on Vanessa’s desk as they both laughed. 

She frowned. “Yeah well, I’m glad she manages to get some good ideas out there in between chatting up her colleagues. Take it you two are finished whatever it was you had, then?”

Bianca had turned to Brooke. Brooke tried her best not to seem as if she’d just been stabbed in the stomach. “Yes, that’s done, Bianca.”

“Good,” she smiled easily. “How are the children, anyway?”

“Kameron is a fucking smartarse whose only goal is to stand about and talk to Vanessa all day,” Brooke immediately jumped in, feeling like a simmering pot. “Blair is pleasant but could do with some more training- she’s got some gaps in her knowledge. If you don’t hire Vixen at the end of the internship then you’re an idiot. She’s far and away the most competent of the three.”

Bianca let out a laugh. “She’s also a hothead. You’ve not seen her lose the rag with anyone yet. I like her though, she’s fun. Any opinions, Jackie?”

“I don’t really have the energy to care much about three people who aren’t even going to be in the department come next week, to be honest.”

“I can see that,” Bianca said gravely. Her voice became quieter. “How are things with you, anyway?”

Jackie paused and looked at the ceiling. “Good days and bad days.”

“Are you eating enough?” Bianca then turned to Brooke. “Make sure she’s eating enough.”

“I will.”

“This might cheer you up,” Bianca turned to address Jackie. “They’ve taken a man in for questioning regarding the threats. He’s being detained at Scotland Yard, so you should be safe for now. Your bodyguard is still going to shadow you at home as a precaution, but you should be able to rest easy for a while.”

“Oh! Hallelujah! Bring out the confetti cannons! Thank God I no longer am being threatened! That’s something to really celebrate! Sorry,” Jackie sighed as she calmed down, the sarcastic tone in her voice melting away. “Just...lots of things are hard right now. But thank you for making something easier, Bianca.”

Bianca looked to the floor and coughed, as if she was embarrassed.

“Right then. I will be on my way,” Bianca said by way of a goodbye, standing up and tucking her chair in. 

As Brooke watched her retreat through the office door, she frowned at Jackie. “Hey. Be grateful. She’s doing as much as she can.”

“Have you actually become my mother overnight?! What’s next, telling me how I should’ve gone into medicine instead of politics?” Jackie snapped, scowling. 

“Well if you’re not going to look after yourself, someone has to!” Brooke bit back, shocked at herself over how defensive she was being. Thankfully, mercifully, Jackie had the good grace to look embarrassed before the conversation descended down a path Brooke didn’t want it to take.

“Sorry, Brooke. You’re right, I should be happy he’s been put away. And thank you,” she sighed, finally meeting Brooke's eyes softly. “For looking after me.”

“Just...take care,” Brooke frowned awkwardly, before a small smile spread across her face. “For what it’s worth, I’m proud of you. Who else would have the drive to launch a policy two weeks after a devastating breakup?”

“Anything to take my mind off the situation,” Jackie laughed dryly, suddenly staring into space. Brooke looked at her, the woman that had once looked so powerful suddenly seeming so small in her chair. 

“I’ll make you a cup of tea? It’s not food but it’s close,” Brooke shrugged, hoping Jackie would say yes so that there would at least be something in her stomach. Jackie nodded wordlessly from behind her computer and Brooke got up immediately, making her way to the kitchen. 

She was just about to walk in when she stopped in her tracks as she heard a laugh she recognised as Vanessa’s interspersed with another woman’s- obviously Kameron’s. She could have walked straight in and made the situation awkward, but instead she paused. She didn’t know what she was expecting to hear. 

“So, did you ever expect to get one of your policies launched when you turned up to intern here?”

“Well, I never expected to see someone as gorgeous as you here, but here we are.”

Brooke felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach as Vanessa laughed again. “Shut up! You’re awful, Jesus. But seriously, though. You must be happy?”

“Yeah, I am. It’s a good policy. Shame not everyone could be convinced.” 

Immediately, Brooke froze. It was obvious Kameron was talking about her and now the conversation was going to go down a road she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow. Still, she kept listening. 

“Oh, don’t worry about Brooke Lynn,” Vanessa said, with a sigh in her voice. “She’s everyone’s biggest critic.”

“Yeah well, that’s fine if you have the knowledge to back it up. Didn’t see her coming up with many decent ideas in that meeting,” Kameron laughed smugly. Brooke felt something inside her pop- this was the first time she had ever heard anyone question how good she was at her job, and it only made her dislike of the girl more intense. Her heart hurt as she felt sure Vanessa would jump at the chance to bad mouth her.

“No, she didn’t have many,” Vanessa started, her voice somewhat hesitant. “But she is a good member of the team. She was behind most of New Communities, actually. An’ apparently Bianca is lining her up for a job at Number 10. Say what you like about her, but she’s good at her job.”

Brooke stood frozen to the spot, a little stunned. She wasn’t quite sure what to think, or say. Vanessa continued, the clang of a spoon against porcelain indicating something being stirred. “I’ll prolly get forgotten about when she goes there, and Jan ain’t messaged me once since she walked out. Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy being an advisor, but...it’s just shit when your friends leave you on their way up the ladder.”

“I didn’t realise you and Brooke were friends. You two seem kind of frosty towards each other,” Kameron prompted her, her tone questioning and almost a little accusatory. 

“We…” the stirring stopped as Vanessa paused. “We had a bit of a falling-out. Things are a bit weird between us at the moment. But that don’t mean I stopped caring about her.”

Brooke felt as if there were tiny fireworks in her blood, her pulse so fast it seemed electric. _Vanessa still cared._

“What, she try to steal your girl or something?” Kameron laughed. “She has that look about her.”

Brooke didn’t even care about the jibe. _Vanessa still cared about her._

“I ain’t got a girl to steal...yet,” Brooke could hear the smile in Vanessa’s voice, and Kameron at once barked a laugh. 

“I don’t know why you keep telling me off for flirting when you’re just as bad.”

“True. You love it though,” Vanessa was still smiling. “C’mon, let’s get back. I think Bianca’s gone now so she won’t tell you off for chattin’ to me.”

“What a way to get fired, though.”

Brooke felt panic rise in her stomach as she heard movement from within the kitchen, immediately sprinting as quietly as she could manage back down the corridor, back into the department and launching herself into her seat. She was at once hurt and overjoyed, hopeful and pessimistic, and she hadn’t a clue what to think.

It was only about an hour later that she remembered that she was meant to make Jackie a tea. 

***

The two days leading up to the new policy launch had been the longest of Brooke’s life. Watching Kameron and Vanessa’s flirting become more and more frequent and watching Vixen and Blair continue to behave like Care Bears was taking its toll big time, and Brooke had been quietly preparing for the new launch alone. At times, however, she was sure she saw Vanessa watching her out of the corner of her eye, or passing by her desk as if she wanted to speak to her. She wasn’t sure if she was reading the situation correctly or just going absolutely mental. 

Finally, however, it was Friday, and the nightmare that had been this week would soon be over. Brooke just had a press conference to get through and she could wave the interns goodbye (well, wave Vixen and Blair goodbye and all but stick her heel up Kameron’s backside), go home and sit alone trying to get her head straight. 

It was lunchtime, and the press conference was due to take place in only an hour when everything started to go to shit. Brooke was working on the immigration figures when she suddenly heard a massive squeal from the comms team. Looking over, she saw Vanessa standing by Scarlet’s desk. She seemed to be frantically trying to shush her, but she was laughing and had a massive smile on her face. Brooke watched as Yvie wheeled her way over to the two girls, confusion painted on her face. Listening closely, Brooke’s heart dropped when she heard Scarlet stage-whisper to Yvie. 

“ _She asked her on a date!_ ”

As Yvie began squealing, Brooke’s eyes seemed to stare into the paper in front of her. What the fuck? Only two days ago, Vanessa had seemed as if she still maybe wanted to try again with her, and she had only known Kameron for five days. Now she was going on a date with her? Brooke felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. Rising slowly from her desk, she began to walk to Jackie’s office. Not bothering to knock, she instead flung the door open, the rage now showing on her face. 

“Can you fucking believe that that...steroid polyp bag of smug out there is taking Vanessa on a date? I mean, can you believe it?!” Brooke immediately exploded, before stopping quickly. Jackie was on the phone, her face grave, and whatever it was didn’t seem good. Brooke could only listen, and she recognised Bianca’s tinny yelling down the phone instantly. 

“But it did really sound as if he wanted to...yes, I know what he said, I’m sorry....well we can’t cancel it, they’ll be here in an hour! Well I don’t know! Bianca-” Jackie looked at her phone as the other woman had clearly hung up. “Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God.”

“What is it? What’s happened?” Brooke asked, immediately anxious. Jackie shot up from her desk chair, making her way to the door. She was babbling the whole time. 

“If someone says “should”, it means yes! “Should” is a positive thing, right? He said “we should be doing this”, so how the hell was I supposed to know he didn’t _actually_ want to do it?!” Jackie threw open the glass door and shouted out into the office. “My office, now!”

Brooke could only watch as Jackie retreated back to her chair and Vanessa, Kameron, Vixen, Blair and Nina ran in, their faces painted with identical expressions of confusion. 

“What’s happening?” Blair asked nervously, brave enough to be the first one to speak. 

“What’s happening is that Bianca has just phoned me telling me that the Prime Minister is absolutely livid with me, because allegedly _should_ doesn’t mean _yes_ , and when he said that he approved of my policy, he apparently didn’t approve it enough to mean he wanted me to actually launch it!” Jackie ranted, tearing her hands through her hair in distress. Brooke exhaled loudly. 

“I fucking knew we shouldn’t have gone with this policy, I fucking said-” 

“Oh, shut up, Brooke Lynn!” Vanessa snapped, Brooke immediately looking at her in shock. Vanessa looked a little shocked too, as if she was surprised she’d said it herself.

“Hey,” Vixen suddenly opened her mouth, glaring at Vanessa. “Don’t speak to her like that. You’re meant to be a professional, not a fucking child.”

“Says the girl who’s swearing in the workplace?” Kameron rolled his eyes, turning on Vixen. Brooke saw the fire flash in Vixen’s eyes, and she seemed to be just about to bite back when Blair butted in. 

“You absolute hypocrite! Don’t start pretending you’re above swearing just because you want to impress Vanessa!”

“Would you all just shut the hell up and stop bickering like six year olds?!” Jackie suddenly exploded, the room immediately falling silent.

“I have to completely invent a policy to launch at this press conference, which is now-” she looked at the clock. “- fifty minutes away, and my entire team of advisors are arguing?!”

Everyone looked to the floor, embarrassed. Silence fell as everyone racked their brains to come up with something to launch while Jackie paced nervously. 

“Jackie,” Vanessa began softly. “Weren’t you an’ Jan working on a campaign at some point? The one about mental health for teenagers? It’s not a policy, but it could be the focus for the press conference?”” 

Jackie stopped, sitting down and appearing at once to deflate. “We were, but it’s nowhere near completion. I suppose we could have used it, but she’s got it all on her memory stick.”

Kameron frowned. “Can’t you call her and ask for it?”

Jackie narrowed her eyes. “I’ve been trying to phone her every day for the last fortnight, I somehow doubt she’ll pick up now.”

“She’s not answered any of my texts either,” Vanessa sighed, her shoulders slumping. Brooke took her phone out of her pocket, suddenly angry at Jan. 

“This is ridiculous. She’s going to have to pick up for one of us sometime. I’m phoning her until she picks up,” she said decisively, stepping out of the crowded office and into the adjacent meeting room to give herself some privacy. 

The line began to ring. 

“Come on Jan. Pick up,” Brooke whispered to herself through gritted teeth, the silence only amplifying how loud her heart was pounding. 

Three more rings. 

“Come on you son of a bitch-”

“Brooke Lynn,” Jan’s voice came down the line, a little weary but still very much seeming like her old self. “How are you?”

“Jesus Christ, well thanks very much for answering all my other calls and texts,” Brooke began, exasperated beyond belief at how Jan could just pick up the phone and act like nothing had happened. 

“So still the same old grumpy bitch I know and love.”

“Jan, this isn’t the time to joke with me right now, we’re in serious shit. I need you to come into Dosac and bring the pen drive with the teenage mental health campaign on it, it’s urgent.”

“Oh, that’s nice, so you’re only phoning because you want something?” Jan’s voice turned cold down the line. Brooke felt as if she was about to pop with anger. 

“Well if you wanted to talk about our lives then you should have picked up the other fucking twenty times I phoned you!” 

A beat of silence. “I’ve been busy. The by-election’s soon.”

“Well I’ve been busy too but believe it or not, Jan, my life’s still been crumbling apart and I could have used a friend!” Brooke barked, only realising how loud her voice was when she tuned back into the silence of the room.

“I saw your texts,” Jan started, her voice apologetic. “I’m sorry about what happened with you and ‘Ness.”

Brooke sighed. “Yeah, well. Me too.”

There was a small amount of time where neither of them spoke. 

“I can’t go back into Dosac, Brooke,” Jan said, Brooke almost able to see her shaking her head. 

“Oh Jan, come on, swallow your damn pride. We need that campaign, please.”

“Does Jackie know I’m being phoned?”

Brooke wasn’t sure what the best answer would be. “Yes.”

“Fuck,” Jan groaned quietly, and Brooke’s heart sank. “Could one of you not just meet me in the lobby with it or something?”

“Jan, we’ve got a press conference in forty-five minutes that we need this campaign for. Act like a damn adult and just come into work.”

There was a silence on the line in which Brooke was afraid Jan would hang up. She decided to hit her where it hurt.

“If you ever cared about Jackie, you’d bring the stick in.”

“Brooke, that’s fucking-” Jan began, angry, then there came a resigned sigh down the phone. “...fine. I’ll come in. See you soon.”

Before Brooke could say anything else, Jan hung up. Immediately, Brooke dashed back through to the office, where everyone was waiting nervously in silence. 

“She’s coming in with it,” Brooke said, Vanessa exhaling with relief. “Didn’t say how long she’d be but I hope she’s here before we have to start.”

“Holy hell, right, okay,” Jackie said, her eyes darting around her desk in panic. “Um, interns, get back to whatever you were doing, I need you working hard when she gets here. Vanessa, I need to borrow your makeup.”

“Can I do anything?” Brooke offered. Jackie tapped nervously on her desk. 

“No, you just stay here. I need moral support. You always were good at that,” she said, her breathing growing heavier by the minute. 

So Brooke did wait, as Vanessa gently applied Jackie’s makeup and Jackie fretted and worried out loud that Jan probably wasn’t even going to turn up, and that they’d have to cancel at the last minute, and that they only had half an hour from now and it only took five minutes to walk from Jan’s flat to here.

But sure enough, just as Brooke was beginning to panic that Jan wouldn’t arrive and that they were going to have twenty minutes to invent a policy, there came a soft thud of footsteps from down the corridor. Jackie shot up from her desk quicker than Brooke could turn her head to see who it was, and the Minister was out of her office door as fast as she could go. 

Once Jackie had left her office, Brooke watched with a sort of amusement as she immediately froze in front of her ex, seemingly completely unsure of what to say. Jan, for her part, looked momentarily shocked, as if she’d forgotten that Jackie would be present at work. 

Brooke watched as the two of them stood and looked at each other for what seemed like forever. The interns had clearly sensed the change in atmosphere and were watching from afar, as were the comms girls. For a moment Brooke wondered if she should say something to help either of them out, but luckily Jan spoke first. She cleared her throat gently. 

“Hello, Jaqueline,” she said, a small, tight smile spreading quickly across her face then disappearing as if it had never been there.

“Janette. It’s good to see you,” Jackie returned the awkward pleasantries. The way they were speaking was more like work colleagues than girlfriends, although Brooke supposed that they weren’t really either any more. “How is the, um. How is the by-election prep going?”

Jan looked to the floor, even though Jackie’s question didn’t seem to be loaded. “It’s uh, busy! Busy but good, and fun. Meeting new people, making new connections, that sort of thing.” 

“Of course,” Jackie smiled briefly, then looked at the pen drive in Jan’s hand. “Thank you for bringing the campaign in. I know it’s not perfect, but it’s something- we had to scrap this other policy that we had because-”

Jackie suddenly seemed animated, but cut her own sentence off as she caught sight of Jan’s face, an expression on it that Brooke found hard to read- perhaps sadness, perhaps annoyance. She didn’t know. 

Jackie had stopped speaking and was now looking to the floor as if she had embarrassed herself. “Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details. We can definitely use a lot of what’s here. You had some really good ideas when we came up with this. You’ll be great at policies when you’re an MP.”

Jan gave what seemed to be a genuine smile at the compliment, suddenly bashful. “I won’t know that until the election.”

“Oh, it’s a foregone conclusion, for sure. The public are going to love you. What’s not to love?” Jackie smiled softly. Jan’s gaze seemed to soften as she took a step forward, and for one moment Brooke’s heart leapt as she thought Jan might have been about to give Jackie a kiss, or a hug, or a big declaration of love. 

Instead she gave her the USB. 

As their hands made brief contact, a look passed between the girls that made it seem as if both of their hearts were simultaneously breaking. 

“You know, Jackie,” Jan began quietly as she took a step back. “I didn’t have to bring that campaign in. I was going to use it as one of mine if I became an MP.”

“I know that,” Jackie gave the tiniest of sighs as she looked Jan in the eye. “And I appreciate that you did. Thank you.” 

Jan paused as if she was about to say something else. For a moment, it seemed as if nothing and nobody in the department moved, the whole room on tenterhooks. Just as Jan opened her mouth, Nina appeared seemingly out of nowhere at Jackie’s side. 

“Secretary of State, I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I do need to know if- oh! Jan! There we go, I don’t need an answer now. Pen drive sorted, campaign ready to go! Good to see you, Jan,” she breezed, disappearing as quickly as she had arrived. Brooke could have strangled her- it had seemed as if something was about to be said, something had been about to happen- but instead, Jan gave a resigned smile. 

“Well, good luck with the launch. It was good to see you all. ‘Ness, Brooke. Jackie,” she gave a shy wave before slowly turning on her heel and walking out of the department, not once turning back. 

Vanessa was the first to speak. “You okay, Jackie?”

“I’m fine,” Jackie said harshly, Brooke not failing to notice the rough swallow the other woman gave. 

“Definitely?” Brooke prompted gently, stopping when Jackie turned to glare at her. 

“I’m fine,” she repeated. “Let’s launch the damn thing.”

***

_Brooke came to on a familiar sofa with a soft blanket tucked around her shoulders and a clanking of cutlery and crockery slowly making its way into her stream of consciousness. Opening her eyes and blinking, she was relieved to find she had escaped the hangover that had seemed so impending the night before. Her gaze found its way to the kitchen in the other corner of the room, where the tall, skinny girl was busy spooning something slightly orange-y into two identical chipped blue bowls. Brooke sat up gingerly on the sofa, suddenly worried in case the hangover hit her square in the face. Luckily it didn’t._

_She frowned as she watched the other girl in the kitchen. “Jackie?”_

_The girl quickly looked up, smiling to reveal a set of dazzling white teeth and brushing her dark hair out of her face. “Oh good, you’re awake.”_

_“Yeah. I don’t really know how I got here last night.”_

_“Same way you normally get here, I guess,” Jackie blushed shyly, cleaning her glasses on the oversized t-shirt she used as a pyjama top which were fogged up from the steam of whatever she had been cooking._

_“I don’t remember shit,” Brooke sighed, leaning forward and rubbing her temples as if it would conjure up any memories. “Fuck, I’m meant to have a group meeting at 12pm for this fucking project, I’ve got 3,000 words due for tomorrow and I took so much shit that I didn’t know the name of last night. Why is my life such a mess?”_

_Jackie smirked, bringing the two bowls towards her and sitting them down on the small coffee table in front of the sofa. She sank into the space beside Brooke, snuggling under the blanket and resting her head against her shoulder. Brooke shook her head as she picked up the bowl, a clean-ish silver fork sticking out of it. “What in the hell is this?”_

_“Canned ravioli. Don’t tell my mother,” Jackie smiled, Brooke screwing her face up in response. Jackie continued before she had the chance to protest. “Hey. Listen. It’s a hug in a bowl. It can fix everything. It is the ultimate comfort food. Just eat until you feel better.”_

Brooke allowed the flash of a memory to play through her mind before she picked up the two mugs that sat in front of her, stuck a fork in each of them, and carried them through to the department. Most people had gone home after the campaign had been launched without what seemed to be too much of a hitch- certainly Vanessa had left the building, arm-in-arm with Kameron as they chatted excitedly about their date on Saturday night. Brooke was hurt badly, but she supposed that she was glad that Vanessa had seemed to have found someone who could make her happy. If that person wasn’t Brooke, then that was that. Brooke wasn’t quite at the level of acceptance yet, but she was just relieved that Vanessa seemed happy. 

Jackie, on the other hand, didn’t look nearly ready to accept anything yet. Since her encounter with Jan she’d been even worse than she had been before, and had spent the hours after the campaign launch sitting alone in her office. So Brooke had decided to do what had always seemed to fix things for them both at uni, and had nipped out to the shop to get the remedy. She wasn’t sure that it would work, but it was worth a try.

She gently knocked on Jackie’s door, careful not to knock any of the contents of the mugs in front of her onto the floor. Without waiting for permission to enter, Brooke shouldered the door open as Jackie looked up from her desk, confused. 

“Brooke, I don’t need tea.”

“No, it’s food. You’re going to eat it and like it,” Brooke chastised her, placing the mug in front of her and watching as her face grew astonished. “And maybe it’ll fix everything in our lives that have gone to shit.”

A small, genuine smile crept onto Jackie’s face. “Holy hell. I haven’t had this in forever. Definitely not since Uni.”

Brooke smirked as she sat down. “I could have guessed that much. I don’t think there’s many politicians out there who eat canned ravioli.”

“Why is it in a mug?” Jackie snorted a small laugh as she picked up the mug and brought it towards her. Brooke rolled her eyes. 

“There were no clean bowls- Jackie, what does it matter, just eat the damn thing!”

Jackie gave Brooke a rueful look before stabbing a fork into one of the pasta pockets then eating it. Brooke couldn’t help but look expectantly at her. Noticing her looking, Jackie let out a laugh. 

“Are we gonna do the whole thing? The whole...name all our problems and have a moan?”

“Aw, come on. We have to, Jackie, it’s tradition,” Brooke smiled, suddenly a little embarrassed. Jackie put her mug down and sighed. 

“Okay...the love of my entire life has left me and I’m too proud or maybe too stupid to make a proper attempt to get her back because I know she’s better off without me, someone out there wants to kill me, and we’re definitely going to lose seats in this by-election,” Jackie reeled her problems off one by one. Brooke picked her own mug up and leaned back in the chair opposite Jackie’s desk. 

“Vanessa hates me and she’s about to go on a date with a certified ice queen who she’s known all of one week,” she said, stabbing a bit of ravioli. She shrugged. “You definitely win this one.”

The two girls were silent for a while as they ate their first bite, both of them having to cope with how hot the pasta was. After Brooke had swallowed, she frowned at Jackie. 

“Jan’s not better off without you.”

Jackie laughed. “Come on, Brooke. She was right, my life is work and nothing else. All I have to talk about is work. Who wants that?”

“That’s not true,” Brooke told her, pausing before adding to her sentence. “Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

Brooke looked down into her ravioli to avoid seeing Jackie’s reaction. 

“Hey. Why don’t we go for drinks tomorrow night?” Jackie said out of nowhere, causing Brooke to look up and eye her somewhat suspiciously. Jackie shrugged by way of an explanation, then continued. “Vanessa’s on her date. Jan’s probably out having fun with all her new connections somewhere. Why don’t we go get drunk together?”

Brooke hesitated. She wasn’t sure if it would bring back too many memories she didn’t want to think about, or if she’d have to talk about anything she really didn’t want to. But looking at Jackie and seeing her hopeful smile made Brooke reconsider. It would probably be a decent laugh, and getting drunk really seemed tempting what with the condition her life was in right now. Brooke returned the smile. 

“Okay, yeah. That sounds good.”

They smiled at each other again, then ate the rest of their food in companionable silence, the worries of the day somewhat forgotten about at least for a little while.

  
  



End file.
